Skin Bank at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College Hospital performs second skin harvesting

The Skin Bank at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) performed its second skin harvesting, within two weeks of it becoming operational, giving rise to hopes that with better awareness, more families would be encouraged to think about skin donation as a humanitarian gesture.

When Anandavalli Ammal (91) breathed her last at home on Sunday, her sons decided to fulfill her wish to be an organ donor by donating the corneas and her skin.

A medical team from the Plastic Surgery department, which operates the Skin Bank, visited the house of the nonagenarian to harvest the skin.

“Skin grafts can be life-saving for burns patients, most of whom arrive in a critical state in the hospital. Having lost their epidermis, water and albumin depletes from their body very fast and the patient dies due to dehydration. Skin grafts give the protective layer that helps the patients recover faster. With better awareness, skin donation might become a humanitarian gesture that more people would be willing to extend,” H.V. Easwer, son of Anandavalli Ammal, who is also the Head of Neurosurgery at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, said.

The first Skin Bank in the State had been set up with the Burns unit at Government MCH here at ₹6.75 crore in September last.

Skin donation

Skin banks collect, process, and store donated human skin for use in grafts, primarily acting as a temporary biological dressing to protect burn wounds and reduce infection risks. Skin is procured from deceased donors with the consent of families, typically within six hours of death.

There are no age restrictions for skin donation. Skin allografts do not require tissue typing (HLA matching) or blood group (ABO) compatibility, unlike solid organs as skin grafts are used just as temporary dressing. However, routine donor screening tests for infectious diseases like HIV, Hepatitis are required before harvesting, the Head of Plastic Surgery at MCH, A.C Premlal, said.

The process involves sterile cleaning, harvesting thin layers using a dermatome from areas like thighs and back, preservation in glycerol for three weeks and incubation, after bacterial and fungal culture tests. It would be 3-5 weeks before the harvested skin can be grafted. It can be stored at 4-8°C for up to 5 years in the Skin Bank.

“Burns patients are saved from a lot of pain and distress through skin grafts. Essentially, we are just buying time for severe burns patients with these temporary skin grafts, till they can be stabilised,” Dr. Premlal, who got himself trained at AIIMS, said.

More public awareness is needed on the concept, before people would be willing to accept it. There is no disfiguration of the deceased donor, as thin layers of skin are taken from only the thighs and the back, he added.