Soft tissue repair after scalping injury by dog bite

The reconstruction of soft-tissue damage on the part of the head which is c overed with hair is aimed not only at repairing the damage in such a way th at it will withstand mechanical strain but also at the restoring the hair o n the scalp. In a 5-year-old boy with a scalping injury involving second- a nd third-degree soft-tissue damage over an area of 20x12 cm after a dog bit e, surgery was initially performed to transform the damage into purely seco nd-degree damage,which was then repaired with a split skin graft. One year later,the scalp containing the hair was stretched with the aid of two skin expanders over a period of 3 months,so that the split skin graft area could be removed and the hair on the scalp restored.