This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
At the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery's 1988 spring meeting in Palm Beach, Fla, Drs John Phillips and Richard Hayden, St Louis, presented the results of their study on the pharmacologic enhancement of rapid tissue expansion. Tissue expansion is limited by the mechanical properties of the skin, the expander and its surrounding capsule, and by physiologic factors, chiefly the blood flow to the skin over the expander. Drs Phillips and Hayden reasoned that if blood flow could be increased by modifying the ischemic-perfusion phenomenon by scavenging free oxygen radicals, for example, that more rapid tissue expansion would be possible. To test their hypotheses, the presenters evaluated the rates of tissue expansion in the dorsal skin of pigs with topical addition of dimethyl sulfoxide, a free oxygen radical scavenger and collagenolytic agent, and with the infusion of the skin pocket around the expander with hyaluronidase, a collagenolytic agent