Cologne Burn Centre experience with glycerol-preserved allogeneic skin: Part II: Combination with autologous cultured keratinocytes.

Autologous keratinocytes cultured in vitro from skin biopsies of patients with deep partial and full skin thickness burns were grafted onto nine necrectomized wound surfaces between 17 and 25 days after injury. The cells were applied as nonconfluent single cells suspended in fibrin glue. In four wounds, this cell-fibrin suspension was used to attach an additional glycerolized allogeneic split thickness skin graft (STSG). Re-epithelialization was very rapid as demonstrated clinically and histologically. Keratinocyte grafted areas without cadaver skin overgraft showed less mechanical stability than when the keratinocyte-fibrin glue suspension was combined with allogeneic STSG. There is clinical and histological evidence that the allodermis may be partially integrated into the new skin.