Mumbai: After establishing eight skin banks across the nation, the National Burns Centre (NBC), Airoli, will now help set up state-of-the-art skin banks in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, according to Dr Sunil Keswani, director, NBC.
This comes after the NBC received several calls from neighbouring countries wanting skin donations or skin grafts for patients of burns. “Currently there is a need to set up skin banks across the globe as the demand for skin donation for burns patients is increasing. We have started training doctors to set up skin banks in these countries and soon, we will set up guidelines and laws for its implementation,” said Dr Keswani.
In 2007, the centre began to accept skin donations and has established eight skin banks in India - Pune, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Belagavi, and Sangli. From January 2010 to August 2019, the centre has received 1,566 skin donations.
Medical experts from the three Asian countries will be trained at the centre's advanced skin regeneration and stem cell therapy laboratory at Airoli.
"Donated skin can be stored for almost five years until use. There is a wrong perception that skin grafting is done only for burns patients. Skin donations are also needed by patients suffering from any exfoliative skin disease, non-healing ulcers and accidental injuries,” added Dr Keswani.
Skin donation facts
Skin harvesting is done within six hours of death.A very thin layer is harvested from both the legs, thighs and the back. There is no bleeding or disfigurement to the body. No matching is required for grafting. The long shelf life, five years, and the skin processing charges for cadaveric skin are lower than those of commercially available synthetic skin substitutes.
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