Burn treatment in children is associated with several difficulties, e.g. available skin replacement is small, donor area could expand, and subsequent
hypertrophic scar and
contracture could become larger along with their physical growth. In order to have better clinical results, the authors prepared cryopreserved cultured epidermal allografts from excess epidermal cells of other patients, and applied the epidermal allografts to 55 children, i.e. 43 cases of deep partial-thickness
burn wounds (
DDB) due to scald
burn and 12 cases with split-thickness skin donor sites. In the 43
DDB patients, epithelialization was confirmed 9.1+/-3.6 days (mean+/-S.D.)
after treatment. In 10 of the 43 patients, epithelialization was comparable between the area which received the epidermal allografts (grafted area) and the area which did not receive the epidermal allografts but was covered with usual
wound dressing (non-grafted area). As a result, epithelialization day was 7.9+/-1.7 in grafted areas and 20.5+/-2.3 in non-grafted areas. In the 12 patients with split-thickness skin donor sites, epithelialization was confirmed 6.3+/-0.9 days
after treatment. Epithelialization of the grafted and non-grafted areas was comparable in 8 of the 12 patients, and it was 6.5+/-1.1 days and 14.1+/-1.6 days, respectively. In these 10
DDB patients and 8 split-thickness skin donor site patients, redness and
scar formation were also milder in the grafted area. The 55 patients have been followed up for 1-8 years (mean, 4.75 years), and
scar formation was suppressed in both
DDB and split-thickness skin donor sites. These findings showed that cryopreserved cultured epidermal allografts achieve early closure of the
wounds and good functional outcomes.