Dr Maryam Seyedabadi¹, Prof Peter Maitz¹, A/Prof Peter Haertsch¹

¹Concord Hospital, , Australia

Abstract:

The use of cadaveric skin in the setting of large burns is well established. The difficulty in the use of cadaveric skin is its availability, cost and quality. An alternative to cadaveric skin is donor skin from live donors. This can be in a setting similar to organ donation, or in special circumstances family, neither of which are a ready available source. In this study we suggest an alternative donor population: massive weight loss patients undergoing body contour surgery, and describe an appropriate harvest technique.
Methods and Results: Recruitment of donors: Donors patients were recruited by going through surgical wait lists for body contouring. Potential donors were called and asked if they were interested in being a participant and written information mailed to them. All willing participants were consented and screened for blood born diseases as per transplant guidelines. Harvest: once the abdominal pannus was removed from patient, the skin was then harvested. This was done by stabilising the pannus on the back of instrument trays, injection of tumescent fluid to allow harvest with dermatone. The harvest split skin graft was then rolled and stored in glycerol until use.
This study explores a potential source of donor skin that could be utilised in large burns. We also describe an easy technique for harvest of skin from body contouring patients in a way that allows harvest in vitro thereby causing no pain or potential harm to the donor patients.

Biography:

Dr Seyedabadi is a senior plastic surgical trainee