Can sole skin also be used as a new material for skin repair surgery? Miss Lu, a 20-year-old, suffered from chronic ulcer in her right leg more than a year ago due to trauma. The scope of the wound gradually expanded, and thick juice kept flowing out, but the wound was not improved by self-treatment. It was not until last June that the wound suddenly became red, swollen and painful, causing cellulitis. She turned to plastic surgery for plantar skin transplantation, and her condition was improved.

Traditional skin repair surgery will take skin from thigh, but if the wound area is small, skin can also be taken from sole for transplantation at present. The patient's right leg wound is only 2 cm, but cellulitis has formed. In order to avoid the continuous deterioration of the wound and increase the risk of sepsis, the doctor first arranged debridement surgery to thoroughly clean the wound, and then closed the wound with skin repair surgery after the wound inflammation subsided.

After debridement, Miss Lu's wound area became 6×5 cm, and skin grafts could be obtained from donor sites such as scalp and thigh skin. However, considering that the patient loves beauty and is afraid of pain, and the wound area is not large, the doctor took the skin from the sole of the foot instead.

After debridement of the wound of Miss Lu's right calf, she underwent plantar skin repair surgery, and at the same time repaired the calf skin and plantar donor site. (Photo courtesy/China attached to the doctor) A new choice for small area skin repair: plantar skin thinning.

Zhang Jianing, director of plastic surgery at China Medical University, said that the traditional skin repair surgery would take skin from scalp and thighs. Although scalp tissue has strong regeneration ability, it needs shaving; After thigh skin excision, the donor site is prone to scar hypertrophy and pigmentation. However, if thin skin (non-full-thickness skin) is obtained from the part of the sole that is not in direct contact with the ground and transplanted to the skin and soft tissue defect area of the body, it can not only treat the original affected area, but also regenerate new skin in the skin donor area without obvious scar.

Dr. Zhang Jianing, who has carried out more than 30 cases of plantar skin transplantation so far, said that the skin repair operation of plantar skin transplantation can reduce scar formation and pigmentation, and can avoid the shortcomings of the traditional knife method, but the wound area is less than 8×8 cm, and there will be some pain in the initial stage of wound recovery, and appropriate painkillers are still needed to relieve the pain.