Superiority of Occipital Donor Sites for Split-Thickness Skin Grafting in Dermatosurgery: Results of a Prospective Randomized Controlled Study

In a prospective randomized controlled study involving 108 patients who underwent micrographically controlled R0 tumor resection followed by split-thickness skin grafting, occipital donor sites demonstrated significant advantages over femoral donor sites. The study assessed graft take rates, re-epithelialization rates at the donor site, pain, cosmetic outcome, Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS), and complications. Results indicated that occipital donor sites had significantly faster re-epithelialization, less pain, fewer complications, a better cosmetic outcome, and better VSS scores. Specifically, grafts from the occiput showed significantly better take rates on days 3 and 5 post-surgery. This study, conducted six years ago, was the first randomized controlled trial to show the significant superiority of occipital donor sites compared to femoral donor sites in these aspects.