Autogenous skin and fascia grafts as topical hemostatic agents in splenic injuries

Splenic salvage techniques were developed since the immunologic importance of the spleen has been recognized. Various synthetic products, such as Avitan, Collastat Gel foam, Superstat, Thrombostat, were used and lately even pig skin was tested for its hemostatic ability. In this study, a canine splenic bleeding model was used to test autologous split-thickness skin-graft hemostatic effect, compared to pig skin, human skin and canine fascia. Lyophilized pig skin was tested on 12 splenic wounds, lyophilized human skin on 10, canine skin on 10, canine fascia on 10 and simple pad gauze on 10 other splenic wounds. Each animal served as its own control. Pig skin was more effective than canine skin (p<0.01), but the canine skin was more effective than human skin (p<0.01) and canine fascia (p<0.05). Long-term implantation of the canine skin graft caused fibrosis and epidermoid cyst formation, but they were of no clinical significance in the dog. In conclusion, autologous split thickness graft, always at hand, was found to be an effective hemostatic procedure and proved to be safe in the dog.