Plastic Surgery Skin Graft Instructions
-Do not get your surgical sites wet.
-Ok to take a shower or bath if you can safely keep your surgical sites from getting wet. Otherwise you should do a sponge bath.
-Keep the dressings in place, Dr. DePerro will do the first dressing change.
-Try to limit activity in the body area or limb where the skin graft is located.
-Avoid direct pressure or shearing forces on the recipient site.
-The donor site usually hurts more than the recipient site, this is normal.
-You may have some oozing from the donor site, this is normal. You can reinforce the dressing with 4×4’s, gauze pads, or ABD’s as needed.
-The donor site dressing is usually harder to keep in place than the recipient site.
-You may see some shadowing or blood on the donor site dressing. This is normal and is only a problem if there are signs of active bleeding.
-Smoking causes multiple wound healing complications. It is very important that you do not smoke and you are not around people that smoke for at least 6 weeks after surgery. Second hand smoke is just as harmful as if you were to smoke.
-Take you pain medication with food. This can be with as little as a few crackers. This will help prevent nausea.