What Is Tissue Grafting And What Are Its Uses?

In the area of medicine, grafting is that surgical procedure in which body tissue having no blood supply is transplanted. Thus the tissue which is implanted must get a blood supply from new vascular region or else it will die.

The term tissue grafting mostly applies to the grafting of skin. Skin grafting is used to heal the loss of skin which may have occurred due to a wound, a burn, an infection or due to some kind of surgery. If the skin is damaged, it is extracted and new skin gets grafted as a replacement. Skin grafting decreases the overall cost of the treatment and also makes the functioning and looks of the particular body part.

The best quality skin grafts are obtained from the patients own skin, from areas like the buttocks which are not normally noticeable.

Tissue grafting is the artificial removal of a part of an organism and its replacement with the same part from a different part of the body or from an organ belonging to another individual. It is a surgical procedure to transplant tissue without blood supply. The implanted tissue needs to have blood supply from new vascular tissue or it can die.

There are various kinds of tissue grafting for organs like skin, nerves, bone, tendons, and cornea. Tissue grafting is almost synonymous with skin grafting. It is used to treat skin damage due to burns, infections, wound or surgery. The damaged skin is discarded and removed surgically and a new skin is grafted onto the place. Skin grafting can shorten the length of hospitalization, besides improving the appearance and the function of the tissue. In agriculture, tissue grafting refers to uprooting of plant from one location and planting it in another place.