Biomechanical comparison between conventional and rapid expansion of skin

This study was designed to investigate the effects of different surgical expansion regimens on the biomechanical features of expanded skin. Two hundred and forty millilitres expanders were implanted on the backs of six adult dogs. Six flaps were designed on the dorsum of each dog. After serial expansion, the expander was left beneath the skin for a certain period of time, which is called the maintaining period. Rapid expansion and conventional expansion with various maintaining periods were compared. The experimental result shows that the area gain of expanded skin surface had no significant difference between the rapid and conventional expansion. Both the tension in vivo and the instant stretch-back ratio increased during the expansion, but fell almost to control values after four weeks' maintaining period. Biomechanical properties in vitro, such as tensile strength, stress-strain, stress-relaxation, and creep were tested by INSTRON material testing machine. Results show that the biomechanicat properties of expanded specimens differ significantly from those of their controls immediately after expansion. However, the difference reduces with prolongation of maintaining time. With the same maintaining period, the biomechanical properties of rapidly expanded skin are similar to conventionally expanded skin. We conclude that rapid skin expansion did not demonstrate any deleterious effect when compared with the conventional expansion. Extension of the maintaining period can improve the biomechanical properties of expanded skin and effectively reduce the stretch-back ratio. Therefore, rapid expansion with an extended maintaining period is acceptable in clinical practice. (C) 2003 The British Association of Plastic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.