Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of Skin Grafting
Split-thickness skin grafts are widely used to treat chronic wounds – long-lasting injuries that the body cannot heal. To cover chronic wounds and protect them from the environment and from pathogens, the wounds are often treated with split-thickness skin grafts. This involves harvesting a thin layer of skin from one part of the body (i), creating a mesh pattern with rows of slits (ii-iii), expanding the graft (iv), and transplanting it onto a wound site of a larger area (v).
The design of this procedure requires surgeons to predict how much a patch of the patient’s own skin expands when it is meshed with rows of slits and stretched over a larger wound area. However, accurate prediction of graft remains a challenge, with current models overestimating the actual expansion. Inspired by the principles of mechanical metamaterials, we developed a straightforward analytical model intended to improve the accuracy of skin graft expansion predictions. The model's accuracy has been validated through extensive data from skin graft surgeries and finite element simulations.
Expansion limits of meshed split-thickness skin grafts
H Yu, M Jafari, A Mujahid, CF Garcia, J Shah, R Sinha, Y Huang, D Shakiba, Y Hong, D Cheraghali, J Pryce, JA Sandler, EL Elson, JM Sacks, G Genin, F Alisafaei
Acta Biomaterialia, 2025