Basic and clinical study of the effect of exogenous hyaluronic acid on the quality of acellular dermal matrix combined with thin intermediate split thickness skin graft

BACKGROUND: To promote wound recovery in the recipient region, we studied the impact of exogenous hyaluronic acid (HA) on acellular dermal matrix (ADM) paired with thin intermediate-thickness skin transplant. METHODS: This study contains animal and clinical experiments. 50 Japanese big ear rabbits were separated into HA1, HA2, PADM, TS, and NS groups. Clinical part included 50 scar patients dividing into 5 groups (TS + HA + ADM 1, TS + ADM2, TS, TS + ADM and normal skin (NS)). RESULTS: In the animal trial, after 56 days, the grafts contracted least in the HA2 group; HA2 had the highest microvascular density (MVD), HA concentration, and collagen I and III expression. In clinical work, ADM > HA + ADM2 > HA + ADM1 > TS > NS; Type I and III collagen: HA + ADM1 and HA + ADM2 were higher than ADM; HA content: TS > HA + ADM1 > HA + ADM 2 > ADM. CONCLUSIONS: ADM, exogenous hyaluronic acid mixed with thin skin autograft has better biomechanical qualities and therapeutic impact than acellular dermal matrix alone, and the reconstructive result is near to self-thick skin autograft in all indexes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40001-023-01283-4.