Spray-on skin heals fast, ends misery of burn scars

LONDON: His grandma’s back was turned for only a second, but that’s all it took for little Zed Merrick to grasp a freshly-made cup of tea.

Before anyone could stop him, the 2-year-old had pulled the cup – and its scalding contents – down his front, causing second-degree burns to his torso.

Thanks to an innovative treatment hailed as the “Holy Grail” of burns care, Zed, now 8, bears no lasting scars.

The treatment is “spray-on” skin, created with a postage stamp-sized piece of the patient’s own skin.

It is placed in a battery-powered device the size of a lunchbox in a special solution containing enzymes that make the cells proliferate. Within halfan-hour, this creates enough “spray-on” skin to cover an adult male torso.

The technology can help burn victims heal without painful skin grafts and without unsightly scars.

Advice from the British Burn Association and British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons is to put a burn under cool, running water for 20 minutes, ideally straight away, but even up to three hours later.

First-degree burns heal without dressings. A third-degree burn – the worst kind – is when the damage has been sustained to the full thickness of the skin.

The whole operation, including preparing Zed’s body and making the spray, took just 45 minutes, and Zed was then bandaged.

When the dressings were changed after four days, the skin was healing brilliantly – and after three weeks it healed completely (the area was covered with dressings to protect it for three more months).

Nine months after the accident, Zed was discharged from follow-up appointments as the scar was virtually invisible. – Daily Mail