UP’s first skin bank in KGMU soon

Lucknow, June 28 (SocialNews.XYZ) The King George’s Medical University (KGMU) will get the much-awaited skin bank operational within the next two months.

This will be the state's first skin bank. Officials claimed that the procurement of necessary equipment has already commenced, and the civil work is in its final phase.

Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery at KGMU, Prof Vijay Kumar, said, "The skin bank is being developed using Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds. The procurement of a biosafety cabinet, skin donation vehicle, cold room, sealer, shaking incubator, dermatome, walk-in fridge, and other equipment is underway. Besides, the civil work is also in the final stage and will be completed soon. We are hopeful that patients will have access to the skin bank in two months."

Explaining the necessity, officials said that in the skin bank, donor skin is taken from those people who want to donate organs after death.

After harvesting and preserving the cadaver's skin, it is used for grafting in severely burned patients because there is usually no space on their body to allow the skin to cover deep burn wounds for faster healing.

Since there is no skin bank in the state, the doctors are forced to extract the skin of the burn patient from a safe area.

However, a senior faculty member at KGMU, said that patients with severe burns often die of infection because they have no skin left that can be used for grafting.

"The chances of infection in a severe burn patient (more than 55 per cent) are now very high in the absence of a skin bank. We deal with two to three serious cases every two to three days, and it is very difficult to save them as they often get infected," he added.

The announcement of the skin bank at a 1,500 sqft area at KGMU was first made in April 2022, with a deadline set for January 2023. However, the civil work was delayed by four months due to clearance from different departments. Now these issues have been solved, said officials.

Source: IANS