BACKGROUND:There are less reports about the external use of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) hydrogel to repair thick skin graft donor sites. By now, relevant self-control studies have not been retrieved. OBJECTIVE:To observe the effect of rhGM-CSF on the repair of thick skin graft donor sites. METHODS:Sixty patients with burns and scar hyperplasia undergoing autologous thick skin grafting were enroled, 47 males and 13 females, aged 18-65 years. The thigh was selected as donor sites. According to the depth of donor sites, the patients were divided into 0.4 mm and 0.55 mm groups, with 30 cases in each group. Wounds on the symmetric areas with equal area and same depth were selected or wounds with same depth were selected and divided equaly. The wounds were randomly assigned into treatment group and control group. The treatment group was treated with rhGM-CSF hydrogel externaly; the control group was only given vaseline dressing. At postoperative 3, 7, 10, 14 days, the fresh dressing was changed. Then, the wound appearance, healing time, healing rate and adverse effects were observed in the two groups. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:At 14 days after operation, the wound surface was smoother and the pigmentation was relatively less in the treatment group compared with the control group; the degree of wound pain
was less in the treatment group than the control group during dressing change (P < 0.05). At 10 and 14 days after operation, the healing rate and healing time were better in the treatment group than the control group (P < 0.05). No general malaise or hypersensitivity cases were reported, and local issue hyperplasia was also not found. Al the above indicate that the external use of the rhGM-CSF hydrogel can evidently shorten the healing time and improve the healing condition when it is applied in the thick skin graft donor sites.