Skin, Burns and Skin Donation (a boon to burn victims)

What's the biggest organ in your body?

You might be surprised to find out it's the skin, which you might not think of as an organ. No matter how you think of it, your skin is very important. It covers and protects everything inside your body. Without skin, people's muscles, bones, and organs would be hanging out all over the place.

It also:
1) protects our bodies.
2) helps keep our bodies at just the right temperature.
3) allows us to have the sense of touch.

Components of skin:

The skin is made of 3 layers. The layer on the outside is called the epidermis. It is the one which you can see. Look down at your hands for a minute. Even though you can't see anything happening, your epidermis is hard at work. At the bottom of the epidermis, new skin cells are forming.

When the cells are ready, they start moving toward the top of your epidermis. This trip takes about 2 weeks to a month. As newer cells continue to move up, older cells near the top die and rise to the surface of your skin. What you see on your hands (and everywhere else on your body) are really dead skin cells.

These old cells are tough and strong, just right for covering your body and protecting it. But they only stick around for a little while. Soon, they'll flake off. Though you can't see it happening, every minute of the day we lose about 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells off the surface of our skin.

So just in the time it took you to read this far, you've probably lost about 40,000 cells. That's almost 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of cells every year! But don't think your skin might wear out someday. Your epidermis is always making new skin cells that rise to the top to replace the old ones. Most of the cells in your epidermis (95%) work to make new skin cells.

And what about the other 5%? They make a substance called melanin . Melanin gives skin its color. The darker your skin is, the more melanin you have. When you go out into the sun, these cells make extra melanin to protect you from getting burned by the sun's ultraviolet, or UV, rays.

That's why your skin gets tan if you spend a lot of time in the sun. But even though melanin is mighty, it can't shield you all by itself. You'll want to wear sunscreen and protective clothing, such as a hat, to prevent painful sunburns. Protecting your skin now also can help prevent skin cancer when you get older.

The Dermis Is Under the Epidermis
The next layer down is the dermis . You can't see your dermis because it's hidden under your epidermis. The dermis contains nerve endings, blood vessels, oil glands, and sweat glands. It also contains collagen and elastin, which are tough and stretchy. dermis is also full of tiny blood vessels. These keep your skin cells healthy by bringing them the oxygen and nutrients they need and by taking away waste. The dermis is also home to the sebacious glands and sweat glands.

The Third Layer Is Subcutaneous Fat
The third and bottom layer of the skin is called the subcutaneous layer. It is made mostly of fat and helps your body stay warm and absorb shocks, like if you bang into something or fall down. The subcutaneous layer also helps hold your skin to all the tissues underneath it.

Skin Burn:

Burns are often categorized as first, second or third-degree burns, depending on how badly the skin is damaged. Each of the injuries above can cause any of these three types of burn. But both the type of burn and its cause will determine how the burn is treated. All burns should be treated quickly to reduce the temperature of the burned area and reduce damage to the skin and underlying tissue (if the burn is severe).

Skin Donation:

The development of skin banking, 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 is retrieved by a technique 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.

Q: Why is donated skin important?

A: Donated skin can be used as a temporary covering for severely burned patients awaiting grafting procedures. The donated skin functions as the burned patient’s own skin for a short time, reducing pain and decreasing the risk of infection. In many cases, the availability of donated skin can help save the lives of burned patients.Advances in medicine and tissue preservation now make it possible to use skin in other procedures. In addition to use as a temporary skin covering, donated dermal grafts can now be used to replace lost dermis and can significantly reduce scarring, restore mobility and minimize the use of the patient’s own skin. Dermal grafts are also used to fill soft tissue defects as a result of cancer or trauma, to restore bladder control in the treatment of incontinence, in periodontal surgery to correct gingival defects and to faciliate abdominal wall repair for hernias or other injuries.

Q: How is donated skin recovered?

A: Skin is obtained by a surgical procedure. Skin grafts are typically recovered from the back, abdomen and legs and may vary in thickness from .005” to .035”. In most instances, the procedure takes one to two hours.

Q: How is donated skin prepared for transplantation?

A: Donated skin is prepared for transplantation in one of two ways. The tissue can be prepared by traditional methods of cell preservation which include maintaining cell viability via tissue culture techniques or cryopreservation. More recently, donated skin grafts can be preserved by utilizing advanced technologies to remove the cellular components of the grafts while maintaining the biochemical and structural characteristics. As a result, these donated skin grafts can be transplanted successfully without rejection. This technology greatly expands the clinical applications of donated skin.