Patient fighting flesh-eating bacteria gets skin graft
18 Jun 2012 1:44 AM GMT
A 24-year-old American woman fighting a flesh-eating bacteria underwent a successful graft to replace swaths of her damaged skin, her father said.
The procedure was performed on a massive wound left open when doctors were forced to remove tissue last month from Aimee Copeland's abdomen, side and hip in an effort to prevent the spread of the bacteria, according to an update posted on her father's blog. An additional skin graft was scheduled to be performed on Friday, her father said, describing it as the ‘final initial graft procedure to close the open wound.’
‘I say 'final initial' because I understand that skin surfaces continue to break down over time and that Aimee will need follow-up surgeries to repair those areas in the weeks, months and years ahead,’ Andy Copeland wrote.
‘Aimee's wound repair is a lifelong process that will require ongoing attention and medical care, however, the surgery on Sunday will bring her one step closer to her biggest challenge yet: rehab.’
A skin graft is a thin patch of skin surgically shaved from elsewhere on the body and transplanted onto a clean, blood vessel-laden wound bed.
Earlier this week, Copeland was upgraded from critical to serious condition at Doctors Hospital of Augusta, where she has been receiving treatment, CNN reported.
The procedure was performed on a massive wound left open when doctors were forced to remove tissue last month from Aimee Copeland's abdomen, side and hip in an effort to prevent the spread of the bacteria, according to an update posted on her father's blog. An additional skin graft was scheduled to be performed on Friday, her father said, describing it as the ‘final initial graft procedure to close the open wound.’
‘I say 'final initial' because I understand that skin surfaces continue to break down over time and that Aimee will need follow-up surgeries to repair those areas in the weeks, months and years ahead,’ Andy Copeland wrote.
‘Aimee's wound repair is a lifelong process that will require ongoing attention and medical care, however, the surgery on Sunday will bring her one step closer to her biggest challenge yet: rehab.’
A skin graft is a thin patch of skin surgically shaved from elsewhere on the body and transplanted onto a clean, blood vessel-laden wound bed.
Earlier this week, Copeland was upgraded from critical to serious condition at Doctors Hospital of Augusta, where she has been receiving treatment, CNN reported.
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