A common urban legend is that hospitals are waiting with open arms to remove excess skin for use on burn victims. While this isn't true, for those of you who would like to donate skin after surgery, please scroll to the bottom of this wonderful post for the address:
"... And the most wonderful thing would be - if you had cosmetic surgery for the excess skin that it be donated for use by burn patients and others needing skin grafts."
Response:
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if this were true?
As a burn survivor with 108 skin grafts, maybe I can shed some light on this.
When your skin is damaged badly enough to require grafting, the only skin that can permanently replace it is your own skin (or that of an identical twin). This type of graft is called an autograft, and can be accomplished in two ways. One, they remove shallow slices of skin from unburned areas of your body (donor sites) and literally move it to areas that need to be grafted. The burned skin is removed, and the donor skin is stapled or stitched into place, where it usually successfully re-attaches and grows. The donor sites eventually regenerate, t scar to some degree. Graft sites, as would be expected, also scar. The other way is to grow skin cells in a laboratory, often in conjunction with "artificial skin" products such as Integra. This is usually a last resort when the patient just doesn't have enough undamaged potential donor sites accomplish the job. The lab-grown skin is transplanted much like donor skin.
Burn patients are often critically ill, sometimes more so than anyone not having seen it firsthand can begin to imagine.
A fresh donor site becomes the equivalent of a second-degree burn after the skin is removed, and between burned areas, grafted areas, and fresh donor sites, there is a limit to the number of donor sites that surgeons can use at any given time. Doctors need to buy time for some patients while donor sites recover or new skin can be grown. Temporary skin coverings, either from human cadaver skin (allografts) or pigskin (xenografts) can be used to help keep the patient alive. These temporary skin coverings are rejected by the body after a few days, die off, and need to be replaced either with a permanent autograft or another temporary allograft/xenograft.
It is possible to "harvest" skin from live donors. But the equipment needed to do this is horrendously expensive,..
and very, very few burn centers have it. It's just not a cost effective procedure, considering the procedure results in an allograft that is going to die off in a matter of days and will need to be replaced. In addition, the live skin that might be harvested needs to fit many criteria. For starters, it has to be very healthy, of sufficient size and shape, and cannot be scarred or stretched out. It also needs to be screened for communicable diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, and the like. Then the harvested skin needs to be kept alive until it is used as a temporary skin graft. Very few surgical procedures result in this kind of harvestable skin; certainly tummy tucks or removal of saggy underarm skin are not among them. Most burn centers prefer to allocate precious resources to things that are going to provide the best possible care for critically ill patients.
If anyone truly wishes to help burn patients, please consider post-mortem skin donations, much like you might consider donation of other organs.
If you have "live" skin you wish to donate, please contact::
The American Burn Association
650 N. Michigan Avenue
Suite 1530
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone 800-548-2876
Fax 312-642-9150
prior to any contemplated surgeries so the American Burn Association can direct you to medical facilities that have the proper resources. The American Burn Association can also provide you with the information you would need regarding post-mortem skin donations.
I don't know of any medical facility that will trade free or low-cost surgery for the harvest of excess skin."
Nordica