FULL-LOAD EXPANSION TECHNIQUE AND PRELIMINARY CLINICAL-APPLICATION

For accelerating the inflation process of soft-tissue expansion, a con tinuous inflation protocol regarding pain as the criterion of overinfl ation, the full-load expansion technique, has been introduced. It is c arried out by restricting persistently the pressure in the expander ne ar the pain threshold in a state of dynamic equilibrium between the in fusing rate and the skin expansion velocity with a simple and practica l device. This inflation is neither at a uniform infusion rate nor at a constant filling pressure, Nineteen expanders in 13 patients were in flated following this protocol. Their inflations were fulfilled in 5 t o 20 days, depending individually on their anatomic regions, total vol umes of infusion, areas of the overlying skin, and patient susceptibil ities.