Cultured epithelium as a skin substitute.

Twenty-five burn patients with full or partial thickness skin loss received cultured epithelium (CE), allografts or autografts as part of their treatment. Overall, a 30 per cent graft 'take' was achieved irrespective of whether the CE was autograft or allograft, fresh or frozen. In the case of deep dermal burns this figure improved to 50 per cent. The surviving grafts merged with split thickness skin grafts (SSG) and advancing wound edges. When full thickness skin loss was grafted, only a patchy take could be achieved and the surviving islands of CE tended not to spread across the wound. No rejection of CE allograft was recorded either clinically or histologically up to 6 months. The technical problems and clinical implications are discussed.