Ipsilateral Skin Grafts for Lower Limb Melanoma Reconstruction Are Safe

Current Surgical Management of Acral Lentiginous Melanoma

“…In contrast, a recent study has shown that there was no difference in the rates of donor site recurrence between the ipsilateral and contralateral limbs [57].…”

The ban of the ipsilateral limb as a skin graft donor site after melanoma excision: A critical review

“…9 The sole additional comparable assessment, to date, was presented by Schumacher et al, in 2010. 10 The authors retrospectively reported on 85 cases with at least 5-years of follow-up. Twenty-eight per cent of all defects were closed with a contralateral split-thickness skin graft and 27 per cent with an ipsilateral graft.…”

“…[3][4][5][6][7][8] This holds true even though the use of the ipsilateral limb is more convenient 5,9 and would be preferable, not in the least to the patient. [9][10][11] This made us wonder what the evidence would be for the standard practice. In the following we report on our critically reviewing the rationale and available evidence for the routine, as well as on our concluding that one should not evade the ipsilateral limb.…”

Surgery and the Staging of Melanoma

“…However, a recent study looking at the recurrence rates within skin graft donor sites, reported no difference in local recurrence rates when either the ipsilateral or contralateral limbs were used as graft sites. The authors of this study recommended that to improve patient recovery, harvesting the graft from the same limb as the primary tumor is both oncologically safe and technically superior to contralateral skin graft harvest [47]. In certain sites, such as the head and neck, the use of skin grafts may not always be ideal and may result in significant deformity.…”