Chennai: Very soon burns patients can pin their hopes on a cadaver donor skin bank at Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital, a first in government sector.
Until now, government hospitals had to depend on private facilities for cadaver skin to treat emergency cases like patients with severe burns or acute skin allergies.
The skin bank, which will work under the Cosmetology department of the hospital, was set up at Rs 1.4 crore. “If a person suffers 40 per cent burns, it can lead to infection and death. But temporary cadaver skin coating will reduce the death rate significantly,” said Dr GR Ratnavel, head of the hospital’s cosmetology department.
Cadaver skin is the preferred option for a patient with the most severe burns, some skin ulcers and allergies until a graft of the patient’s own skin can be applied. Cadaver skin is removed from the cadaver donor, processed and stored in the bank, The Newindianexpress reported.
“Now, we borrow skin from private hospitals under MoU signed. For one patient of burn injuries, two to three cadaver skins are needed. Sometimes, we will do allograft from relatives of the patients or parents,” said Dr Nirmala Ponnambalam, head of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Government Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital.
The body will reject cadaver skin in three weeks. Within this period, the patient’s own skin will be formed. Cadaver skin will reduce mortality rate in burns cases. It will also help to prevent infection, reduce pain and maintain body temperature.
From 2008 to till now, 40 cadaver skin donations were made under the Tamil Nadu Cadaver Organs Donation programme. After Stanley Hospital, the skin bank will be inaugurated at Government Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital, which has been pending for long. “The facility at KMC will be funded by the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu. The works are nearing completion,” said an official source. Though, Tamil Nadu is doing well in cadaver organ donations, awareness should be created on skin donation as it will save lives.