FREE excess skin removal

Well as soon as I know..I will post it. I will check into it through some other hospitals as well.

April

That sound good,I will look into the burn hospitals here , what away to help someone

i also heard that if you donate you excess skin to burned fire fighter you can have it do free as well ..im just not sure where you can have it done . i will have to look into it further

 

I was reading your post about donating excess skin. Could you find out if shriners will do the surgery? Please let me know 

Thanks!!!

Nici

If only.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006052228382

http://www.saintbarnabas.com/contact/skin.html

CitS

From Shriners Website

Donations of skin
Many people generously offer to donate skin leftover from a medical procedure for the burn victims we treat.  Unfortunately, we cannot accept these donations and recommend you contact a tissue bank in your area, your local hospital or the US Department of Health and Human Services.  http://www.organdonor.gov/


Supposedly burn victims do better with cadaver skin.

Gosh that would have been a really nice idea.

I *think* that's a rumor.  Can you imagine all those poor kids, once terribly burned, ending up with wrinkly, crepe-y stretch-marked skin?   That's doing them no favors!

Seriously, I know that skin grafts are temporary; they're not transplants as such, since they ultimately get rejected by the recipient.

Anyway, here's a blog by an actual plastic surgeon addressing this question:

http://plasticsurgery101.blogspot.com/2007/09/urban-legend-d ebunked-can-you-donate.html

/Steve

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Urban legend debunked: Can you donate skin from your tummy tuck to the Shriner's burn center for skin grafting?

I do a good bit of surgery on people after the two most common weight loss operations, gastric bypass and gastric banding (the "lap-band"). Every few months I get an email from someone asking about a rumor they've heard that if they donate their excised skin from their tummy tuck (panniculectomy) surgery that they will get the cost of their surgery covered by the Shriner's, the charitable social organization whose endowment funds many of the largest burn units across the country.

The idea that that skin could be used easily always sounded fishy to me, as post weight loss skin is "damaged goods" and would seem like poor material to be considered for use as it tends to be very thin and attenuated tissue.

Cadaver skin has been harvested for a long time for use as temporary wound coverage. If you try grafting it on someone else, their body ultimately mounts an immune response and rejects it. Still, it can make an effective temporary closure for very large burns. A number of companies turn cadaver skin into commercial products like Alloderm by removing the proteins from it that trigger your immune system. Alloderm (usually processed from the very thick back skin) is a very strong material I increasingly use during breast reconstruction.


Anyway, back to busting the urban legend thing.............

From the Shriner's Hospital website:

Q: Can skin from gastric bypass surgery be donated to children for skin grafts?

A: No, the only donor skin that can be used at the burn center is cadaver skin processed through a skin bank. Only skin from cadavers is used for skin grafts, because cadavers give the greatest amount of surface area – up to 10 sq. feet of usable skin for a burn patient. Skin that could be taken from a person who had excessive weight loss would not generate the amount of skin or quality skin needed to treat burn patients.

Rob

i just saw a show on discovery health not too long ago that showed teenage gastric bypass patient. He had some excess skin removed from around his waist and it was stated that he was donating his excess skin.

Sorry, but this is one of those old urban myths...

from the Shriners Website:

Q:   Can skin from gastric bypass surgery be donated to children for skin grafts?

A:   No, the only donor skin that can be used at the burn center is cadaver skin processed through a skin bank. Only skin from cadavers is used for skin grafts, because cadavers give the greatest amount of surface area – up to 10 sq. feet of usable skin for a burn patient. Skin that could be taken from a person who had excessive weight loss would not generate the amount of skin or quality skin needed to treat burn patients.

That's why I said in my post that I did not know if it was true or not. I imagine if it were true they would have people lined up down the streets to get it done for free...Anyway, I will see about being a living donor regardless. http://www.mtf.org/donor/living_skin.html
April