A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED TRIAL OF ABSORBABLE STAPLE FIXATION OF SKIN-GRAFTS FOR BURN WOUND COVERAGE

A prospective randomized trial of absorbable versus metal skin staples for securing skin grafts to excised burn wounds was performed in 20 p atients. The absorbable staples were easy to use and efficacious in se curing the skin grafts, except to edematous fatty tissue. Aestheticall y, the absorbable staples yielded as good or better results when compa red with metal staples resulting from a lack of tissue distortion. A d ecrease of 61.4 minutes of the most significantly painful portion of t he postoperative dressing change (i.e., staple removal) would have bee n avoided by using absorbable staples. The overall cost of using the a bsorbable staples for small burns was comparable with metal staples; h owever, the cost difference was significantly greater for large burns.