Expansion techniques for skin grafts: comparison between mesh and Meek island (sandwich-) grafts.

In skin grafting operations for patients with extensive burn injuries, mesh techniques are often employed to enlarge the effective surface area covered by autografts. However, substantial strips of autograft are required and the distribution of autograft elements on the wound surface is relatively uneconomical. An alternative technique for expanding autografts, first described by Meek in 1958, makes use of a special dermatome and prefolded gauzes to obtain a regular expansion of autograft squares from small pieces of split skin grafts. In a simple in vitro experiment using allograft skin, the expansion ratio obtained with the Meek micrograft technique was measured at almost 1:9. In contrast, the expansion ratio obtained with allograft meshed '1:6' with a Zimmer Dermatome II was measured at 1:4. The maximum distance between the graft elements obtained with the Meek technique was 9 mm, compared to a maximal distance between the strands of the mesh graft of 12 mm. The Meek technique is a useful alternative to mesh grafts when donor sites are limited. Clinical experience suggests that Meek grafts are also particularly suitable for grafting on granulating wounds under poor conditions.