skin graft
Meaning of skin graft: A skin graft transplants skin from one body site to another, replacing tissue lost to injury, surgery, or disease.
Definition of skin graft
A skin graft is a piece of skin surgically removed from one area of the body, called the donor site, and transplanted to another area, called the recipient site, where skin has been lost or removed due to injury, surgery, or disease. The graft relies on the recipient site's blood supply to survive and gradually integrate with the surrounding tissue.
A split-thickness skin graft includes only the upper layers of skin, leaving deeper layers at the donor site intact so that area can heal and regenerate its own surface skin, while a full-thickness skin graft includes the entire thickness of the skin, generally used for smaller areas where a closer match to normal skin thickness and appearance is desired.
A skin graft differs from a skin flap, which remains partly attached to its original blood supply as it is moved, since a graft depends entirely on establishing a new blood supply at its new location to survive.
Used in a sentence
A split-thickness skin graft was used to cover the area following removal of the skin cancer.
Good to know
A skin graft depends entirely on developing a new blood supply at the recipient site, distinguishing it from a skin flap, which keeps at least a partial original blood supply intact when moved.