Will A Full Thickness Skin Graft Be A Good Choice To Treat Acne Scars?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Do you think it would be possible to transfer a large area of skin (full thickness graft) from a forehead reduction to the cheek that’s about 2 cm in height and 4.5 cm long and then reduce the scars of the borders left behind with lasers (as an alternative to individual punch grafts)? Most of my pits are concentrated in an area that size on my right cheek. If so, or if you think there’s another way to possibly fix my skin I’d like to schedule a consultation with you in person sometime in the next month or two. Please let me know if you think there’s a way to improve my skin, as I mentioned several dermatologists I’ve seen won’t do punch grafts to those areas, because they’ve told me they do not believe that they would heal properly. Thanks for your help!

A: This is definitely the type of skin grafting you don’t want to do. That wold look like a patch sitting on the cheek and would be much much worse in appearance than how your acne scars look like. Punch grafting would still be a much better option than composite excision and all thickness skin grafting.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana