What to Know About Jay Leno's Burn Treatments and Skin Grafting Procedure

Jay Leno is currently recovering at Grossman Burn Center after a gasoline fire left him with "significant" second- and third-degree burns on his face, chest and hand.

The former Tonight Show host, 72, was working on a steam engine underneath a car in his garage on Saturday when a fire began, causing the severe burns.

During a press conference Wednesday, Dr. Peter Grossman — medical director at the Grossman Burn Center who is treating Leno — detailed the comedian's current treatment plan. He revealed Leno underwent a surgical excision and grafting procedure to his face, his chest and his hands.

The surgery is designed to promote wound healing and reduce the risk of infection by removing unhealthy tissue.

"His burns were in the mid partial to deep partial thickness, which means some areas much of the thickness of the skin was injured," Grossman explained. "In order to expedite healing, you want to remove the unhealthy tissue which serves as a source of inflammation and serves as potential bacteria that gets into the wound."

"Under anesthesia, those are rigorously cleaned and will be called debrided or shaved away and a biological skin substitute was placed on the wounds in order to expedite healing and create a wound healing environment that stimulates the body to progress in a positive direction," he continued. "That's a temporary biological dressing which ultimately will need to be removed and then his wounds will be re-evaluated over the next two days and the determination into what the final moves will be made when we return to the operating room later this week."

In addition to the surgical excision and grafting procedure, Leno has been undergoing "very aggressive" hyperbaric oxygen therapy, Grossman said.

"Hyperbaric oxygen [therapy] is going into an environment where you have 100% oxygen under high pressure. And what that does is increase the oxygenation to the plasma in the blood and so higher oxygen circulates within the body," he explained during the news briefing.

Grossman added, "That helps the healing process, helps stimulate new blood vessel growth in areas that have been traumatized, it decreases the bacteria that normally surrounds the wound and it also decreases the pressure and the swelling inside the tissue."

The doctor noted that burns are progressive and can become deeper due to natural swelling that occurs with an injury, but they are actively working to prevent that.

"By getting a patient into a hyperbaric oxygen tank early, you can hopefully minimize that progression from a second degree burn to a third degree burn and hopefully improve the outcome," Grossman said. "And so, we've been very aggressive with hyperbaric oxygen treatment with Mr. Leno and he's been tolerating that well so that is part of the treatment plan."

While Leno remains in treatment, doctors said he is "in good spirits" and expected to make a full recovery. "Whether they'll be remnants of this injury, it's still too early to tell," Grossman said. "I'd say that his injuries are serious, his condition is good."