1997. Second Skins: “FDA Consumer”. Jan./ Feb. edition: 12-17.Many years ago if a person were to encounter a severe burn they did not live because of dehydration and serious infections. New advances in medical technology mike it possible burn patients to live and have newly restored skin too.The best way to treat a severe burn is for it to be cleaned and covered in a critical amount of time. Many types of coverings can be used to get the job done. Currently, surgeons agree that the patients own skin is the best form of covering the burn wound. By taking skin from another body part, the burn wound can be covered with the transplanted skin. This process is called auto grafting. Auto grafting can’t be done for those patients who have burns covering the majority of their bodies. So, there has to be another way for covering their burns. An additional possibility is called an all graft, the process when the burn is covered with cadaver skin. Cadaver skin is sometimes in short supply so animal skin might be used in place of it. The use of animal skin or Xenografting is sometimes avoided because the patient’s immune system could reject the skin and have to be removed.Two major types of dressing that are used for covering third degree burns and are FDA approved and recognized, Biobrane and Integra. Both of these dressings are laid and kept in place until autographing can be possible. Growing a patients skin in a lab, which is called cultured skin, is a process that helps eliminate the donor site and scarring from auto grafting. Taking a skin sample about the size of a quarter can be grown into enough skin to nearly cover all the body in about 2 to 3 weeks. The only problem with this method is that something has to cover the wounds in the meantime. This is when the Integra and Biobrane take effect. The wound could be covered with Integra or Biobrane acting as the epidermal layer of the skin until the new grown skin is ...
