Whole-face dermal expander

Reconstructive surgeons often use a dermal expander where they need to obtain large amounts of skin for a graft (eg for a facial burns victim). The expander is basically a balloon which is placed under healthy skin (for instance on the back or chest) and inflated with saline over a period of weeks. The skin stretches and grows as the balloon inflates. When it's ready, the surgeon removes the balloon and surplus skin (which is used as a graft), and closes the hole where the balloon was.

This has been found to work much better - where large areas of full-thickness skin are needed - than the alternative of piecing together multiple smaller grafts taken from many parts of the body.

However, even a large graft from a dermal expander must be cut and stitched to fit the contours of the face, rather like making a mask out of paper.

Buchanan Medical and Bookbinding, Inc (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Buchanan Health Care) introduces the Whole Face Dermal Expander.

The WFDE starts out as a mask of semi- rigid silicone rubber, shaped to resemble the burn-victim's original face as closely as possible. A second layer of thinner silicone is attached to the back of the mask, forming a sort of balloon-with-a- face.

This structure is inserted under the skin on the back (or chest) - if necessary, a previous normal dermal expander can be used to make room for it. Then, over a few weeks, the balloon is inflated, stretching the skin over the "face" and lifting the "face" away from the body.

Finally, the newly-formed face is removed like any normal dermal expansion, and the wound is closed. The mask-shaped skin graft is now ideally shaped for the basis of facial reconstuction.