Role of Tissue Expander in Yemeni Post Burn Patients, Post Traumatic Scars, and Defects Management

Abstract

Background: the increment in incidence of post burns and post war injuries scars, pigmentations , cicatricial alopecia and defects cases due to the bad health and economic conditions caused by war in Yemen and their effects on these patients physically, aesthetically and psychologically is the main reason of this study. Tissue expansion was used to correct these scars, pigmentations and defects by using the tissue expander. We aim in this study (the first study in Yemen) to demonstrate the effectiveness of this modality in management these scars and defects and identified its success and failure factors and managed them to achieve good results and superior aesthetic outcome.

Patients and Methods: This study is prospective study was conducted on 50 cases Used tissue expanders with 50 - 550cc capacities in different body areas during the period from January 2020 to January 2024. more than half of participants (62.0%) were female and (38.0%) were male. The participants' mean age was 22.7±7.8 years. majority of injuries were located on the scalp (30.0%), followed by the neck (28.0%), face (16.0%), extremities (12 .0%), forehead (8%) and chest (4.0%) and abdomen (2.0%). The most common cause of injury was post-burn complications.

Result: The majority of operations were successful, with 78.0% of patients reporting satisfaction. Most cases did not exhibit any complications (86.0%), while some had minor salvageable (10.0%) or major unsalvageable complications (4.0%). The study found no significant relationship between variables such as age, sex, injury location, cause, concomitant tissue expander use, and previous expansion with operation outcomes or complication.

Conclusion: Tissue expansion modality is effective method for post burn and post injuries complications correction with more than three quarters (78%) satisfied results, and remote incision for device insertion dealing some complications like wound dehiscence.