‘Skin grown from patient’s tissue has edge over donated one’
LUCKNOW: Growing patients’ skin with the help of tissues collected from their bodies would make treating severe burn cases easy in future, said experts at the 53rd annual conference of the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India (APSICON-2018) that began here on Wednesday.
“Such skin that is grown from a patient’s own tissue has an edge over the skin obtained from a donor,” said Dr Adarsh Kumar, one of the speakers at the conference.
He said skin was grown from tissue in two steps. First, the tissue was collected, preferably in a 1inchX1inch size. Then it was grown in the laboratory via the tissue culture route. “It is best used for patients with 70% burns or more, or those with deep burns. Till the time the patient’s own skin grows (in the lab), donated skin obtained from a skin bank can be used,” said Dr Kumar. Dr SD Pandey, former head, plastic surgery department, King George’s Medical University (KGMU), inaugurated the conference. Several sessions highlighting different aspects of plastic surgery were organised on the first day. Dr Vaibhav Khanna and Dr RK Mishra spoke on craniofacial surgery. They elaborated on the advances made in the fields by taking up examples of different cases.
Dr Giorjio De Santis from Italy explained the process for jaw repair.
“Plastic surgery has come a long way -- from just repairing skin to rehabilitating patients, using micro-vascular surgery and bringing major relief to accident and acid attack survivors,” said Dr Khanna. The conference will continue till November 25.
› It is best used for patients with 70% burns or more. Till the time the patient’s own skin grows (in the lab), donated skin obtained from a bank can be used. DR ADARSH KUMAR, a speaker