Hyderabad: The doctors at the first skin bank in Osmania General Hospital (OGH) have successfully conducted the first retrieval of skin from a brain dead donor. Senior doctors from the Department of Plastic Surgery and other trained technicians retrieved the outer layer of the skin from the legs of a 53-year-old-brain dead woman at Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills, OGH doctors said.
The relatives of the brain dead patient, who were contacted by the OGH officials had agreed to donate the skin of the brain dead patient following a series of counselling sessions. The family members were informed about the importance of skin donation and its role in saving the lives of desperate burn victims at OGH and the skin bank facility that can properly store the skin for at least five years.
“Our doctors and trained skin technicians have successfully retrieved the skin tissue. I must congratulate the entire team of the plastic surgery department for establishing such a facility and then encouraging relatives of brain dead patients to agree to donate the skin of the deceased. This is the first successful skin donation for the skin bank at OGH. These facilities are meant for poor and needy patients,” Superintendent, Dr B Nagender said.
In June, a state-of-the-art skin bank was inaugurated at OGH to harvest skin from deceased donors and use it to revive burn and trauma patients. The skin bank at OGH is harvesting skin from deceased donors after receiving consent from relatives of the dead person. The skin is processed and preserved in the skin bank and later distributed to needy burn patients, based on organ donation guidelines.
The skin bank was established with a cost of Rs 60 lakh over a space of 1,400 square feet through donations from Rotary Club of Hyderabad (East). It is equipped with modern high-end equipment to store donated skin in temperatures of 4 degree Celsius to 5 degree Celsius for a period of at least five years.
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