Marcia Spear

Vanderbilt University United States of America

Marcia Spear is a Doctor of Nursing Practice for the Department of Plastic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. She received her Masters and Doctorate degrees from Vanderbilt University, School of Nursing in 1999 and 2010, respectively. She holds faculty appointments in both the School of Medicine and School of Nursing. She has worked in the specialty of Plastic Surgery and Wound Care for over twenty years and has written numerous articles and publications on related issues.

Marcia Spear

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Latest work with IntechOpen by Marcia Spear

The procedure of skin grafting has been performed since 3000BC and with the aid of modern technology has evolved through the years. While the development of new techniques and devices has significantly improved the functional as well as the aesthetic results from skin grafting, the fundamentals of skin grafting have remained the same, a healthy vascular granulating wound bed free of infection. Adherence to the recipient bed is the most important factor in skin graft survival and research continues introducing new techniques that promote this process. Biological and synthetic skin substitutes have also provided better treatment options as well as HLA tissue typing and the use of growth factors. Even today, skin grafts remain the most common and least invasive procedure for the closure of soft tissue defects but the quest for perfection continues.

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