Tissue expanders: Covering the defect

Skin expansion is a commonly-employed technique in human plastic and restorative surgery to grow extra skin through controlled mechanical overstretch. It can aid in the repair of difficult reconstructive problems, including allowing for coverage of the donor site at the same time. When skin is stretched beyond its physiological limit, mechanotransduction pathways are activated. This leads to cell growth as well as to the formation of new cells. This is a natural physiological process that occurs, for example, to allow increased skin surface area during advancing pregnancy or in association with an abscess/haematoma. It creates skin that matches the colour, texture and thickness of the surrounding tissue, while minimising scars and risk of rejection. It is routinely employed in a variety of complex reconstructive problems in people including the management of giant congenital naevi, post-mastectomy breast reconstruction and the secondary reconstruction of burn scar alopecia ...