Biography
Biography: Silvia Bisti
Abstract
Skin expansion is a physiological process based on the capacity of human skin to increase its superficial area in response to a stress, it is used in plastic reconstructive surgery every time that an extra flap of skin is needed to reconstruct burned areas, hide scars etc. The surgical procedure is performed by implanting skin expanders, Fig. 1(a), that are silicon bags, under the subcutaneous tissue and infiltrating them weekly with a saline solution. The physiology of skin expansion considers both the stretching of the skin and the relaxation process used to obtain the extra flap of skin that possesses the required characteristics needed to the reconstruction. Finite elements controlling the internal volume have been used to simulate numerically the whole process of skin expansion. During our research on the subject, some points were considered of great importance: the characterization of human skin as a viscoelastic material and the choice of the site to perform the expansion. To guide the surgeon in choosing the number and shape of skin expanders necessary to obtain the extra flap of skin, the application SKIN CALC was developed and is accessible in Play Store. Since the internal pressure in the skin expanders is dependent on the volume of liquid infiltrated, to aid surgeons in this topic an apparatus to measure the internal pressure before, during and after the skin expansion was processed, Fig. 1 (b). The frequently visits of the patients to the ambulatory, to perform the several infiltrations needed, are an issue and to avoid it a new portable apparatus, Fig. 1(c) was developed in a way that the patient can infiltrate himself in his house. The pressure and volume infiltrated are registered in a Simcard, and all the data can be recovered by the surgeon, which is fundamental for further research.