Methods for preparing a skin graft without culturing or use of biologics

• US 9,517,082 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2015
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Solventum Intellectual Properties Company (Solventum Corp.)
• Original Assignee: KCI Licensing Incorporated (3M Company)
• Inventors: Sabir, Sameer Ahmed, Tolkoff, M. Josh, Ziegler, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): HOLWERDA, KATHLEEN SONNETT
• Application Number:
  US14/589,739
• Publication Number:
  US 20150201955A1
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• Field of Search: 606131-133
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/30 Surgical pincettes without pivotal connectionsfor holding suture needles or materials A61B17/0483; wound clamps A61B17/08 ; hand-held gripping tools without pivotal connections in general B25B9/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/322 Skin grafting apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/306 holding by means of suction
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/3225 with processing of harvested tissue

Abstract

The present invention generally relates to methods for preparing a skin graft without culturing or use of biologics.

Claims

1. A method of skin grafting, the method comprising the steps of:

placing a skin graft device on a donor site, wherein the skin graft device comprises a hollow body;

creating a plurality of microblisters from the donor site by producing a negative pressure within the hollow body of the skin graft device;

placing a first substrate within said hollow body so as to contact at least a portion of said microblisters;

cutting the plurality of microblisters thereby creating a plurality of micrografts,

capturing the plurality of micrografts on the first substrate;

preparing said micrografts for transfer to a recipient site without culturing said micrografts or applying biologics to said micrografts; and

transferring said micrografts from said first substrate to a recipient site.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the micrografts has a lateral dimension less than about 2 mm.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the micrografts has a lateral dimension in a range of about 100 microns to about 1000 microns.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising expanding said first substrate thereby expanding a distance between each of the plurality of micrografts.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein expanding said first substrate is performed manually.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein expanding said first substrate is performed mechanically.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein expanding said first substrate is substantially uniform in all directions.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein expanding the substrate increases a ratio of an area of the recipient site to an area of the donor site by a factor in a range from about 10×

to about 100×

.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the recipient site comprises a burn.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the recipient site comprises an ulcerated tissue.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the recipient site comprises a depigmented tissue.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the depigmented tissue comprises vitiligo.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the micrografts from the first substrate to a second substrate.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second substrate has a greater affinity for the micrografts than the first substrate.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second substrate comprises a hydrocolloid gel.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the first substrate comprises a wetting agent.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the wetting agent is selected from the group consisting of water and saline.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate comprises an adhesive material.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the adhesive material comprises an adhesive spray.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the first substrate comprises a deformable non-resilient material.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the deformable non-resilient material comprises polyurethane.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the donor site comprises a pigmented skin site.