Grafting – Basic Principles and Surgical Applications, Part I

Grafting is defined as a surgical procedure in which tissue is transplanted without its native blood supply from one anatomic region of the body to another. A graft can be transplanted within the same individual (autograft), or between individuals of the same (allograft) or a different species (xenograft). A graft fully relies on the blood supply of its recipient site, which is why healthy and well vascularized recipient sites are prerequisites for successful graft healing. Various types of tissues can be grafted with reliable healing rates and have become part of standard surgical treatment strategies. Pre-clinical research approaches within tissue engineering and regenerative medicine using stem cells, biological scaffolds, biomolecules, and gene therapy have demonstrated great advances in graft vascularization and healing and may yield translational treatment strategies improving patient outcomes in the future. This review contains 3 figures, and 48 references. Keywords: autograft, allograft, xenograft, vascularization, skin grafting, fat grafting, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine