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David W. Furnas, MD; Bruce M. Achauer, MD

Arch Surg. 1976;111(8):916.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

A suction catheter provides the key to the open technique of skin grafting in fresh wounds. The open technique has the advantage that the graft is continually in view, and hematomas or seromas can be dealt with as soon as they occur, preventing graft necrosis. The strip of grafted skin that covers the suction catheter itself will survive if the catheter is removed within the first two or three days. Sometimes a stripe is visible along the line of this tract for a period of time, but rarely is it permanent.

Suction tubes are widely used under flaps.¹ The simple concept of using suction tubes under free grafts has doubtlessly originated de novo with many surgeons. Nonetheless, the technique is not widely exploited, and we describe here the method that we have found useful during the past ten years (Fig 1 and 2).

We place a medium or small . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Division of Plastic Surgery, University of California School of Medicine, Irvine.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Feb 27, 1976.

Reprint requests to University of California School of Medicine, Irvine, CA 92717 (Dr Furnas).

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