Abstract
The extensive traumatic wound has posed a serious problem to the surgeon. Various drugs and dressing methods have been used for this kind of wound but there has been no ideal method. The pigskin xenograft was used initially for the treatment of burn wound. The salutary effect of porcine xenograft are the stimulation of growth of healthy granulation tissue, as well as epithelial borders, inhibition of bacterial growth and pain relief. We have performed porcine xenograft in 20 cases having extensive traumatic wound with skin defect from January 1981 to February 1982. The results obtained are as follows: 1. Protect large open wound until autograft are available. 2. Alleviate pain in the wound. 3. Promote granulation tissue growth which is needed for early autograft. 4. Protect the exposed wound areas (bone and tendon) from infection. 5. The healing time of the wound depended upon the severity and the state of underlying tissue in the wound rather than wound size.