The effect of graft thickness, donor site and graft bed on graft shrinkage in the hooded rat

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Summary 1.Full thickness homografts of body, tail and ear skin, and measured split thickness grafts of body and tail skin, were applied to prepared sites on the chests of homozygous rats. 2.Grafts applied to the deep fascia (as tested with tail skin grafts), shrank slightly less than grafts applied to the panniculus carnosus. 3.The orientation of the graft (as tested with body skin grafts), did not affect the amount of shrinkage; but shrinkage was consistently greater in the plane of the dressing tension. 4.Of the full thickness grafts, these from the body skin shrank most initially and then enlarged to a final 65 per cent. of their original area. Tail skin shrank to about 65 per cent. and remained constant. Ear skin after a variable amount of shrinkage, enlarged to its original size. 5.With body skin, the split thickness grafts shrank more than full thickness, the thinner the graft the more the initial contraction and the less the subsequent enlargement, but equal thickness split skin grafts from the dorsum shrank more than those from the ventrum. 6.With tail skin the split thickness grafts shrank less than full thickness skin. 7.It is concluded that the nature of the donor site as well as the thickness of the graft affect the amount of shrinkage, and that the orientation, and the graft bed (if mobile) have little or no effect.