Grafting of burns with widely meshed autograft split skin and Langerhans cell-depressed allograft split skin overlay.

Extensively burned patients suffer from lack of sufficient autologous donor skin. Meshing and wide expansion of the obtained split skin has met the requirement to a large degree. However, the wider the expansion, the less chance of a proper take. By covering widely expanded autografts with viable cadaver split skin, the take has been improved. If the epidermal Langerhans cells in the cadaver split skin are depressed by ultraviolet B light and glucocorticosteroids before grafting, a prolonged allograft take can be achieved and the healing of the underlying autografts is ensured for an extended period. Grafting results in 6 patients with extensive burns are reported.