History of free skin grafting. Knowledge of empiricism?

In the course of more than a hundred years, skin grafting has become a standard procedure in surgery. The indications for the several types of grafting have become rather uniform.The technical aids at the operations only differ in details. Especially the vast experience gained in World War II provided the opportunity to develop the technique of skin grafting and so the evolution of present day plastics surgery. However, virtually every step in the field of indications, selection of grafts, technique and postoperative care has been based on empiricism. The contribution of research has been small. Yet it is necessary that research should come to play a revollutionary, decisive role in the future to make skin homografting clinically applicable. Although certain technical improvements may still be developed, the answer to the problems of skin homografting will be found in the field of immunology. ... Zie Summary and conclusions