sunday age page 6 skin donor shortage, page-2

I may be able to help here. In large burns if acute complete debridement (removal by excision) of the burnt skin is not performed the person becomes severely immunocompromised... Hence skin from a donor can be used to cover burnt areas as a short term option until their own skin grows enough for harvesting for skin grafting. The immune system being compromised is important in this instance as the donor skin would be rejected in someone with a normal immune system.... This clearly is a bad option given that they are sick and have major lack of immune system leading to increased risk of overwhelming infection... Hence... it is my understanding that the polynovo product aims to make donor skin redundant as the BTM does the same job without needing the immune system to be compromised and therefore the person retains the ability to fight infection and retain fluid (with BTM effectively closing the skin). Hence as I understand it, if the science is successful Polynovo has the potential to make skin banks redundant. Let 2012 be a fantastic year for burns patients survival and secondarily for CZD. Remember this is just my understanding... My wife claims I am regularly wrong so there remains this possibility!! Gav