Blood transfusions increase the red blood cells, which carry oxygen from the lungs to every part of the body and take waste in the form of carbon dioxide back to the lungs, where it is breathed out into the air. If there aren't enough red blood cells or if the cells do not contain enough iron to carry oxygen properly, wounds do not heal as well. There are a variety of skin grafts, some that provide temporary cover and others that are for permanent wound coverage. Temporary Wound Covering Allograft, Cadaver Skin, or Homograft is human cadaver skin donated for medical use. The clinical use of allograft skin in the modern era was popularized by James Barrett Brown, who described its use in 1942.
Unmeshed cadaver is put over the excised wound and stapled in place.
Post-operatively, the cadaver may be covered with a dressing. Wound coverage using cadaveric allograft is removed prior to permanent autografting. Xenograft or Heterograft is skin taken from a variety of animals, usually a pig. Heterograft skin became popular because of the limited availability and high expense of human skin tissue. In some cases religious, financial, or cultural objections to the use of human cadaver skin may also be factors.