Degloving

A degloving injury is a type of avulsion in which an extensive section of skin is completely torn off the underlying tissue, severing its blood supply. It is named by analogy to the process of removing a glove.

Typically, degloving injuries affect the extremities and limbs. Any injury which would induce degloving of the head or torso is likely to be lethal. However, controlled facial degloving is often featured in plastic surgery. Degloved skin is effectively dead, and should be treated as a skin graft.

Many small mammals are able to induce degloving of their tails to escape capture; this is comparable to tail autotomy in reptiles.