Question:
If the above graft is considered a surgical wound, what would a second grafting of the same wound with anApligraf be called? If we were correct in calling the debrided skin graft a surgical wound, would a second grafting with an Apligraf be considered surgical?
Answer: Debridement alone does not convert a chronic wound to a surgical wound, says wound expert Dorothy Doughty director of the Wound Ostomy Continence Nursing Education Center at Emory University in Atlanta. However, surgical debridement followed by a split thickness skin graft would change the classification to a surgical wound, she says.
Apligraf placement is non-surgical so Apligraf application would not convert a wound to a surgical wound, Doughty explains.