Cost-efficacy of skin grafting techniques using negative pressure wound therapy and tissue-engineered skin for burns

Burns, which generate hypertrophic scar formation, may decrease functional and aesthetical aspects of patients’ quality of life. To date, grafting treatments were not only proceeded solitarily. The technological development of burn treatments emerged with approaches, such as negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) and tissue-engineered skin (TES). By incorporating negative pressure on the wound bed, NPWT was able to remove debris, remove exudates, maintain humidity, and improve epithelization. A latter development of wound management, TES, also showed prominent results of wound healing. Benefitting from tissue engineering approaches, TES provided the wound bed with extracellular matrix (ECM) and 3D structure to support wound healing. In some reports, NPWT was combined with TES to promote better efficacy. Unfortunately, the efficacies of NPWT, TES, or NPWT-TES hybrid as assisting approaches for skin drafting techniques are not reviewed yet, as well as the cost comparison of the three treatments. In this report, the comparison of skin grafting techniques assisted with the three treatments (NPWT, TES, or NPWT-TES hybrid) was investigated in terms of efficacy and cost. The review starts with brief technical aspects of the three treatments. Subsequently, the efficacy and cost analyses were discussed.