Background: Bioengineered skin substitutes offer tissue replacement without requiring a donor site and might produce better healing.
Objective: To evaluate the recipient's response to grafting a bioengineered skin equivalent onto acute surgical wounds.
Methods: Graftskin, which is made of: 1) a bovine collagen matrix containing human fibroblasts, and 2) an overlying sheet of stratified human epithelium, was grafted onto the excision sites of 15 patients.
Results: Blood and cell studies for toxicity were negative. Graftskin proved easy to handle, and a typical clinical appearance of the skin substitute during "take" was detected. Compared with expectations improved healing occurred. Twelve of 15 patients had initial clinical takes.
Conclusion: Graftskin was not clinically rejected and was not toxic. It often appeared to take and produced better than expected healing.