Tissue expansion

Have you ever seen a balloon grow bigger and bigger? That's what tissue expansion is like, but instead of a balloon, it's your skin and tissue that is slowly stretched out.

When someone needs a bigger piece of skin to replace a damaged area, doctors can use tissue expansion to grow more skin in that area. The doctors insert a small balloon-like device under the skin and slowly fill it up with some special liquid. Over time, the device gets bigger and stretches out the skin and tissue around it. This might feel a bit uncomfortable, but it helps to make sure that the new skin that will be needed is there when surgery time comes.

After a few weeks, the doctors will remove the balloon and use the extra, stretched out skin to replace the damaged area. This is like letting the air out of the balloon, where the skin that was once around the balloon is now much bigger and can be used to fix something else.

While it sounds a little strange or even scary, tissue expansion is actually a pretty cool way to help people who have been hurt. It can also work for people who want to change their appearance, like getting bigger breasts.