Quality-Controlled Skin Allografts and Acellular Dermal Matrices for Burns and Hard-to-Heal Wounds: State of the Art

Dear Colleagues,

Hard-to-heal wounds represent a major clinical challenge for wound care specialists worldwide, a problem exacerbated by an aging population and rising patient comorbidities. Thus, numerous healthcare figures can be involved, ranging from dermatologists, general practitioners, nurses, general/oncologic/vascular/plastic/maxillofacial and orthopedic surgeons, ENT, among others.      

Burns are a common injury across all age groups and can often be complicated by superinfection or delayed/inadequate treatment. These complex wounds typically require advanced treatments and, in cases of deep tissue loss, the grafting of quality-controlled skin allografts or acellular dermal matrices may represent the best therapeutic option.

Although several synthetic and semisynthetic dermal and skin equivalents are currently available, either obtained from tissue establishments or from the market, viable human skin and dermis are still considered the most physiological alternative to replace lost dermis. Indeed, they act as a physiological scaffold that adds structural and trophic support to the surrounding tissues; protection of deep structures (e.g., tendons, bones, cartilage and nerves); stimulation of a functional new dermis (rather than a scar); reduction in wound closure time; control of pain and exudate. in addition, they are effective on pain and can allow sparing of oral/topical drugs in long-term treatments. To date, human acellular dermal matrices have been employed in the reconstruction of skin loss affecting almost all body sites, ranging from visceral sites to the skin and subcutaneous tissues.

This Special Issue aims to investigate the use of quality-controlled human allografts and human acellular dermal matrices in the treatment of various hard-to-heal wounds occurring at different body sites, in terms of lesional topical advantages and practical care.

We encourage the collection of multiple studies using human allografts and acellular dermal matrices dedicated to this topic in the following medical fields, including regenerative medicine and translational research, according to EDQM 2022 (5th Edition) indications*:

• Dermatology
• Plastic and reconstructive surgery
• General and vascular surgery
• Orthopedics
• ENT
• Maxillo-facial surgery
• Dentistry
• Oncologic surgery
• Ocular surgery

* European directorate for the quality of medicines & health care (EDQM) (*2022*) Guide to the quality and safety of tissues and cells for human application. Council of Europe, Strasbourg (France)—5th Edition European commission: https://www.coe.int/en/web/cultural-routes/2016-strasbourg-academy. EudraLex—Volume 4—Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines; 2010 [updated December, 2010]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/health/documents/eudralex/vol-4_en.

Dr. Linda Tognetti
Dr. Elisa Pianigiani
Guest Editors

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• quality-controlled skin allografts
• acellular dermal matrices
• skin allografts
• wound-healing
• hard-to-heal wounds
• wound closure