Sep 27, 2026 · 27 min · 9 segments
In this episode Dr. G explains pinch grafting — a simple autologous technique that places tiny pieces of a patient’s own skin onto a prepared wound bed to create epithelial “islands” that promote…
Gabrielle Hutcheson DonaldsonHostSo a pinch graft is a form of autologous, right now I didn't say that right, but autologous skin grafting.
We're taking small pieces of the patient's own skin from a donor site and placing those pieces on a prepared wound bed, right? Unlike conventional split thickness skin graft, we're not harvesting a large sheet of skin to cover an entire wound.
Instead, we're putting little baby, little small graft items And to be honest, we get little skin graft islands even in wounds that are trying to close.
But think of it almost like planting small islands of skin across the wound, which is nice.
So those islands can contribute to the epithelialization coverage as part of the healing process.
And the simplicity is part of what makes the technique quite interesting.
So let's talk about one of the simplest looking procedures in wound care.
But yet it has very sophisticated biology, which is the pinch skin graft.
At first glance, it seems like very, very simple, right? You're taking a small piece of the patient's own skin, place it on the ulcer, right? The wound bed, secure it and allow the wound to heal.
But What's happening biologically? How does this tiny piece of skin survive on the diabetic foot ulcer? And how does the little piece of tissue become a source of new epithelial coverage? So to help understand, let's go into history.
But before we talk about using pinch graft, let's go back to about 160 years ago.
Because this technique didn't begin in modern wound centers, right? It began in 1869 by a Swiss surgeon named Jacques-Louis Reverdin.
So a pinch graft is a form of autologous, right now I didn't say that right, but autologous skin grafting.
We're taking small pieces of the patient's own skin from a donor site and placing those pieces on a prepared wound bed, right? Unlike conventional split thickness skin graft, we're not harvesting a large sheet of skin to cover an entire wound.
Instead, we're putting little baby, little small graft items And to be honest, we get little skin graft islands even in wounds that are trying to close.
But think of it almost like planting small islands of skin across the wound, which is nice.
So those islands can contribute to the epithelialization coverage as part of the healing process.
And the simplicity is part of what makes the technique quite interesting.
So let's talk about one of the simplest looking procedures in wound care.
But yet it has very sophisticated biology, which is the pinch skin graft.
At first glance, it seems like very, very simple, right? You're taking a small piece of the patient's own skin, place it on the ulcer, right? The wound bed, secure it and allow the wound to heal.
But What's happening biologically? How does this tiny piece of skin survive on the diabetic foot ulcer? And how does the little piece of tissue become a source of new epithelial coverage? So to help understand, let's go into history.
But before we talk about using pinch graft, let's go back to about 160 years ago.
Because this technique didn't begin in modern wound centers, right? It began in 1869 by a Swiss surgeon named Jacques-Louis Reverdin.
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