Shortfall in skin donations hits burn victims hard

Despite thousands suffering from burns every year, the sole skin bank in the city is facing the uphill task of increasing skin donations.

In the three years that the skin bank has been operational since March 2016, it has had just 100 donors, which resulted in 81 burn victims receiving transplants, said Dr Nagaraj B N, in-charge of the bank, located in a nondescript hallway at the Victoria Hospital.

These numbers are important, explained Dr Gunasekar Vuppalapati, plastic surgeon and co-founder of the bank. “There are thousands of victims, but we are unable to help the majority as we don’t have enough skin samples,” he said.

As per government data an estimated 70 lakh people in India had suffered burns in 2018, of which 1.4 lakh people had died. Dr Ramesha K T, head, Plastic Surgery and Burns Ward at the Victoria Hospital, gave DH statistics showing a total of 2,377 people were admitted to the hospital with severe burns between April 2017 and April 2019, of which 785 had died.

“The admittance figures represent just 20% of the number of patients that we received with some form of burns,” he said.

A large number of patients means there is a huge demand for donations, Dr Nagaraj explained, adding that the shortfall is rooted in the public’s lack of awareness.

“Most people think we strip the dead body of its skin. What we do is extract strips of skin with a thickness of 3 mm from the legs and the back of the thighs of a deceased person using a handheld machine called the dermotome,” he said.

The skins are used as biological dressings. “They enhance the reaction of the immune system allowing faster healing,” Dr Vuppalapati said.

He added that Rotary Bengaluru Midtown would hold a 5-km walkathon on June 9 to increase public awareness.

In Bengaluru, with most private hospitals refusing to take in burn victims because of the high cost of treatment involved, the medical institute of choice is Victoria Hospital, followed by medical colleges, according to Dr Vuppalapati.

DH News Service