Success of delayed full-thickness skin grafts after Mohs micrographic surgery.

Abstract

Specific factors affect the outcome of full-thickness skin grafts after Mohs micrographic surgery. No recent clinical studies have systematically investigated the clinical factors that may affect the success of full-thickness skin grafts. Our objective was to analyze patient data to define factors that may influence the success of full-thickness skin grafts. We reviewed the clinical course of 117 patients who had full-thickness skin grafts after Mohs micrographic surgery. We analyzed these cases using patient variables, tumor variables, and skin graft variables and then correlated these variables to skin graft success. Delay of skin graft placement (> 1 day) was significantly correlated with subsequent skin graft success (p = 0.015). Skin graft necrosis was more likely to develop in men than in women (p = 0.021). A delay of 2 to 8 days between Mohs micrographic surgery and full-thickness skin graft placement resulted in a lower incidence of skin graft necrosis than no delay or a delay of 1 day.