The skin graft on Limpopo toddler Pippie Kruger, who sustained third-degree burns to 80 percent of her body, has been a success, surgeons said on Monday.

Inset: Isabella "Pippie" Kruger has endured months of pain from extensive burn wounds (Photo: Antoine de Ras).

“Overall we can say it's a success,” plastic surgeon Dr Ridwan Mia told reporters in Johannesburg.

Mia said 90 percent of the skin which was grown in a laboratory in the United States, and then flown to South Africa, took, with there being only isolated islands where it did not attach to her body. Sheets of her own skin were grown using skin taken from her groin.

The procedure was performed at Johannesburg's Garden City Clinic, where the child has been in the high care unit for the past six months.

It was the first time this type of advanced skin graft had been performed in Africa. It had been performed in the United States and Europe.

Kruger had been in hospital since a bottle of flammable liquid exploded in her father's hands and she was covered in flames at a braai in December. - Sapa