Soft tissue involves skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscles, nerves and arteries
So any tissue involved in injury should be replaced with like tissue. A laceration can be repaired primarily, but if there is a defect or gap in the soft tissue which cannot be primarily closed can be reconstructed with different options like skin graft or flap coverage.

Graft is a tissue of body taken from another part of body without its vascular supply and applied to cover the defect. So if there is a defect with skin loss only and underlying structures like tendons, nerves, arteries and bones are not exposed then simple skin graft can cover the defect.

Usually it is done under general anesthesia. Skin is harvested with minimum thickness through special knife (Humbly#39;s) from donor site like thighs, legs, arms etc. this donor site is then covered with adherent dressing like alginates. The harvested skin is then applied over the healthy wound bed and secured with stitches or staples then covered with bulky non adherent dressing and splintage applied to avoid shearing due to movements.

Patient is admitted for at least 3-5 days.
Dressing is changed at 3rd or 5th day post operatively and graft is checked for its take (adherence to wound).
Then patient is discharged home with regular follow up as outpatient. Dressing is changed on daily or alternate day basis depending upon the condition of wound.
Skin graft heals in 10-14 days while donor site heals in 7-10 days.
Splintage is removed after graft heals and weight bearing and physiotherapy started.
Patient is advised to take care of grafted skin with applying moisturizers and silicon gels to reduce shearing and untoward effects.
skin graft take depends upon multiple factors like general health of patient , comorbids, local wound condition, infection, non compliant patient, mobility of grafted area etc.
with nominal conditions success rate is 90-10.

Graft loss
Pigmentation