As described above, the donor site can be sore for a few days after the surgery. There is also a chance of wound infection, which usually shows itself as skin redness, pain, and sometimes an unpleasant smell from the wound, which may need antibiotics.The donor skin can also sometimes not heal for a long time, or can form raised scars (hypertrophic or keloid scars).
Sometimes the split skin graft does not fully ‘take’, whereby either part of the graft, or the whole graft, doesn’t stick to the wound bed and dies away. This can often be managed with dressings until it is fully healed, but sometimes further surgery is needed.
The graft can contract (shrink) in time, and if this causes problems such as tightness across a joint then surgery may be needed to help release the tight band.