Background: 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.
Objective: Our objective was to analyze patient data to define factors that may influence the success of full-thickness skin grafts.
Methods: 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.
Results: 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).
Conclusion: 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.