The 21-year-old female patient was transferred to E Hospital after a traffic accident between a motorbike and a car in a particularly serious condition in her left leg. The patient suffered a broken femur with widespread skin peeling covering almost the entire circumference of the thigh, calf and left foot. Immediately upon admission, the patient was fixed outside the femur, treated the skin peeling area and underwent many rounds of necrotic tissue removal.
However, after initial interventions, the patient fell into a state of very wide soft tissue defect, losing the entire skin around the circumference of the thigh, left calf and front of the foot. The wound was severely infected, with a lot of pus, foul odor, accompanied by anemia, making the risk of amputation very high.
Faced with a major challenge, the team of the Department of Plastic Surgery and Maxillofacial Surgery, E Hospital, was determined to develop a long-term treatment plan with the highest goal of preserving the limb for the patient. The treatment process is implemented in many stages, starting with thorough removal of the remaining necrotic tissue, changing bandages based on antibiotic results to control infection. When the wound background shows healthy red granular tissue and the infection condition is improved, the patient is undergoing a self-thin skin graft combined with continued care and periodic bandage replacement.
After 4 consecutive skin graft surgeries, the entire injured area was successfully reconstructed, helping to preserve the left leg and opening up opportunities for functional recovery for the patient.
MSc.BSNT Le Thi Nga - Department of Plastic Surgery and Maxillofacial Surgery - said that one of the outstanding techniques applied in this case is autologous thin skin grafting taken from the scalp. This is an advanced technique, especially suitable for cases of widespread skin loss when the grafted skin source in other locations is no longer sufficient.
The advantage of the scalp is that the skin graft can be removed many times without damaging hair follicles. After healing, hair still grows back normally, and scars are covered by hair, so it brings high aesthetic efficiency. Thanks to these properties, the scalp is considered a rich source of graft skin and is very valuable in treating complex soft tissue lesions.
