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Wilson et al. Plast Aesthet Res. 2025;12:8 Plastic and
DOI: 10.20517/2347-9264.2024.135
Aesthetic Research

Original Article Open Access

Exploring the emerging role of Meek micrografting in
healing smaller burns: a case series and evidence

review

Elizabeth Wilson , Michael Grant, Malik Fleet, Megan Lee, Isabel Jones
Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London SW10 9NH, UK.
Correspondence to: Dr. Elizabeth Wilson, Dr. Isabel Jones, Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Chelsea and Westminster
Hospital, 369 Fulham Road, London SW10 9NH, UK. E-mail: Elizabeth.Wilson58@nhs.net; Isabel.Jones2@nhs.net

How to cite this article: Wilson E, Grant M, Fleet M, Lee M, Jones I. Exploring the emerging role of Meek micrografting in healing
smaller burns: a case series and evidence review. Plast Aesthet Res. 2025;12:8. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-9264.2024.
135

Received: 17 Oct 2024 First Decision: 23 Jan 2025 Revised: 23 Feb 2025 Accepted: 6 Mar 2025 Published: 24 Mar 2025

Academic Editors: Xianwen Wang, Marc Jeschke Copy Editor: Ting-Ting Hu Production Editor: Ting-Ting Hu

Abstract
Aim: Deep dermal and full-thickness burns typically require reconstruction with split-thickness skin grafting,
usually following a traditional Tanner mesh technique. An alternate is the modified Meek technique, which has the
benefit of reducing the required donor site size. The study presents our experience with the modified Meek
technique over thirteen years, involving 64 patients with varying total body surface area (TBSA) sizes, aiming to
evaluate outcomes including length of stay, time to heal, and patient and observer scar assessment scale (POSAS)
scores. Additionally, we conducted a review of the current literature.

Methods: Patients who underwent skin grafting using the modified Meek technique at the Adult Burns Centre at
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital between 2011 and 2024 were identified retrospectively using theatre logs. A
dual-investigator literature review was carried out using Ovid and PubMed.
Results: The mean length of stay was 64 days, with a mortality rate of 4.6%. The mean time to achieve 95%
healing was 76 days. The median POSAS score was 5. The literature search identified 27 relevant papers for
analysis.

Conclusion: The modified Meek technique results in smaller donor sites, and safely and effectively heals a wound
in a more timely way using the same expansion ratio as conventional meshed grafts. Areas for ongoing future
research from our review include the use of Meek for smaller TBSA injuries and its potential combination with

© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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