An autograft is tissue that is transplanted from one part of the body to another part of the same body. This is also known as an autologous graft, which means that the donor of the tissue and the recipient of the tissue are the same. Grafting is a surgical procedure in which a tissue or organ is transplanted or attached to a damaged, missing, or defective part of the body. If the graft goes well, the transplanted tissue integrates with the body and is supplied by the recipient's blood supply.
Although people generally think of skin grafts, various types of tissue can be grafted, including bone, nerves, tendons, blood vessels, and materials for the eyes. In addition to autograft, a patient may receive an allograft, isograft, or xenograft. An allograft uses tissue transplanted from a donor in one species to another body in the same species, as in bone from one human to another human. An isograft uses tissue from a genetically identical donor, such as a monigotic twin. In a xenograft, the donor and recipient are from different species, such as pig cartilage donated to a human.
An autograft usually deals with skin, bone, and blood vessel transplants. Using tissue from your own body is often safer and heals more quickly than grafts from another donor. In emergency situations, an autograft is recommended, when possible, because the patient does not have to go through an exam to ensure that the donor tissue is a match. As this procedure removes tissue from one part of the body to reattach it to another location, autologous transplants create two recovery sites, which can lengthen hospital stays and increase patient discomfort.
During a skin autograft, skin tissue is usually removed from a less visible part of the body, such as the inner thigh or buttocks. Skin grafts are used to decrease a patient's healing time, if a substantial portion of the skin is missing or damaged, and to improve the patient's appearance by minimizing scarring or deformity. Usually only a thin layer of skin is removed from the donor site and grafted onto the recipient site, but sometimes thicker layers will be used. Thicker grafts have higher risks of complications, but create less scarring in the recipient portion of the body.
Bone grafts take bone from a donor site and fill gaps in broken, chipped, or misshapen bones. Doctors often use an allograft, usually from frozen dead bone, rather than an autograft in bone grafting due to the high risk of morbidity at the donor sites. However, autografts are useful in eliciting a healing response from the recipient bone, thus improving recovery.
In bypass surgery, a blood vessel autograft is usually used to replace a section of a vital artery. For example, in bypass surgery, doctors graft veins or arteries from other parts of the body to replace blocked sections of major arteries, such as the coronary artery. Donor vessels often come from the leg or inner chest wall.