Impaired Cutaneous Vasodilation and Sweating in Grafted Skin During Heat Stress 6–9 Months Post-Surgery

Abstract

Wounds, such as burns, seriously damage the skin requiring skin grafting. The excising process typically leaves little or no dermal layer which contains the vascular network and sweat glands vital for thermoregulation. Although some degree of revascularization occurs in grafted skin, little is known regarding the effects of skin grafting with respect to the neural control of skin blood flow and sweating. Purpose: To identify the consequences of skin grafting on active cutaneous vasodilation and sweating in juvenile (6–9 months post-surgery) split thickness grafted skin during indirect whole body heating. Skin blood flow (SkBF) and sweat rate (SR) were assessed from grafted skin and adjacent healthy control skin in eleven subjects (5 males, 6 females) during normothermia (NT) and indirect whole body heating (WBH; increase internal temperature ∼0.8 °C). SkBF and SR were assessed via laser-Doppler flowmetry and capacitance hygrometry, respectively, in areas not exposed to direct heating. Cutaneous vascular...