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The development of skin banking, which was funded by Esso Australia, has been a godsend for burn victims. Skin is the best dressing to use on serious burns making the patient much more comfortable. It reduces the growth of bacteria and loss of critical fluid, and also improves a patient's morale and immunological state. Donated skin can make the difference between life and death, promoting healing of the wound bed while the patient's own skin is cultured for grafting. Without the donated skin used in the interim, many burns patients would die waiting for their own skin to be cultured for transplantation.
The skin retrieved at the Donor Tissue Bank of Victoria is called a 'split-thickness allograft'. This means that each piece of skin taken consists of the epidermis and a small portion of the underlying dermis. The pieces of skin are only 0.016 inches (0.40mm) thick.
The age restrictions on skin donation are as follows:
- Males & Females - 18 to 70 years.
Skin pieces are packaged as individual grafts and are stored in the vapour phase of liquid nitrogen (-130ºC to -196ºC) for up to 5 years.
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Supplied Skin Tissue
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This figure shows the amount of skin tissue supplied by the DTBV to surgeons, from 1993 to 2005
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