Comparative study of skin grafting with and without surgical removal of granulation tissue in chronic burn wounds

A prospective comparative study of skin grafting of chronic wounds with and without surgical removal of granulation tissue was done on 51 patients with an objective of finding a better method of skin grafting objectively in the chronic burns wounds. Comparative study was done on those patients who had wounds on both the sides of their body. Wounds present on the right side of the body labeled as Group A were skin grafted after removal of granulation tissue and wounds present on left side of the body labeled as Group B were skin grafted without removal of granulation tissue. There was no significant difference in the comparative bacteriology, graft uptake and cosmetic appearance of the grafts. We found no effect of bacteriology and chronicity of the wounds on the uptake of grafts in the two groups. Serum albumin levels <4 g% was found to be associated with statistically significant decreased graft uptake only in Group A wounds. It was further observed that Group A wounds were associated with more blood loss, less secure haemostasis, prolonged surgical duration and thus more cost of surgery as compared to Group B wounds.