Application of Skin Soft Tissue Expansion in Oncoplastic Surgery

Abstract

The skin soft tissue expansion is called the skin expansion for short; it generally refers to a method where the skin soft tissue expander is implanted under the normal skin soft tissue; the injection pot is used to inject liquid into the expander capsule to increase the volume of the expander and make it produce pressure on the skin soft tissue on its surface; through the localized effect of the expansion mechanism, the cleavage and proliferation as well as the intercellular space of the tissue and epidermal cells are increased, thus increasing the area of the skin, or the skin soft tissue is expanded and extended through the external mechanical traction on the skin, and the newly increased skin soft tissue is used for tissue repair and organ reconstruction [1]. In 1957, Neumann firstly reported the clinical application of tissue expansion [2]. The skin soft tissue expansion in the usual sense was first put forward by Radovan (one plastic surgeon in America); he and Schuhe (a biomedical engineer) developed the first real water injection-type skin soft tissue expander and firstly used it in clinic [3]. In addition to the water injection-type skin soft tissue expander, the permeable self-expanding skin expander developed by Austad et al. in 1979 also has been applied in clinic, because it contains hypertonic solution; once the leakage occurs, the serious consequences such as local skin necrosis will occur, and its expansion speed and capacity are difficult to control. Therefore, currently it is rarely used in China. In addition to the built-in expander which is implanted in the skin, Lasheen also reported an external suction device which can expand the skin; its principles are quite different from the expander which is implanted in the skin, but its clinical application has also achieved good results [4].