Split thickness skin grafts for the treatment of non-healing foot and leg ulcers in patients with diabetes: a retrospective review

We retrospectively reviewed 107 diabetic patients who received a split thickness skin graft (STSG) for treatment of a non-healing diabetic foot or leg ulcer to describe healing times based on patient characteristics, comorbidities or complications. The minimum follow-up was 6 months from the time of STSG application. The mean time to healing among all patients was 5.1 weeks (3 to 16 weeks). The mean healing time for patients with complications was 12.0 weeks (10 to 16 weeks) while the mean healing time for those without complications was 4.9 weeks (3 to 10 weeks). Overall complication rate was 2.8%. Patients with a STSG take of less than 95% had a mean healing time of 7.9 weeks compared to 4.8 weeks for those with a STSG take of 100% (p<0.001). The use of autologous STSG for treatment of non-healing diabetic foot and leg wounds is a viable method for soft tissue closure and may present a low complication rate and a satisfactory rate of healing.