Devellopment of an App for Choosing Skin Expanders
Djenane Cordeiro Pamplona1; Hans Ingo Weber1; Henrique N. Radwansli2
1 PUC-Rio; 2 Ivo Pitanguy Institute
doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-1914
Resumo
Skin expansion is a physiological process that is defined as the ability of the human skin to increase its superficial area in response to stress or to a given deformation. Skin expanders are silicon bags that are implanted underneath the skin. Because the skin presents creep or relaxation, the resulting stress decreases after a specific amount of time due to the imposed deformation. For example, skin expansions are used to reconstruct burned areas and breasts after a mastectomy or to hide scars. This technique is usually performed near areas where skin is required, to provide skin of the same color, texture, sensibility and structure as that to be removed, such as in cases of scars and burns. However, a question that constantly arises during skin expansion is whether it creates a sufficient amount of skin or, in other words, whether the achieved expansion is sufficient to resurface the defect. These questions may be answered with information about how much new tissue is required to achieve the reconstruction in a given context and if this required tissue (surface area) might be calculated in relationship to the volume infiltrated. The goal of the present study is to calculate the number and shape of skin expanders required to ensure that an extra area of skin is present to achieve the reconstruction. Thus, this study provides information to determine the type, number and volume of skin expanders necessary to obtain an extra amount of skin to repair a specific medical condition and to determine the amount of skin obtained even in cases when the expansion does not come to term. Round, as well as rectangular and crescent skin expanders are discussed.
Palavras-chave: Skin expanders; Reconstructive surgery; Plastic surgery