Q:
I recently lost a great deal of weight and I have a lot
of excess skin. Can I donate my excess skin to a skin bank to help burn
patients?
Will a tissue
bank pay for my skin reduction surgery if I agree to donate my tissue?
A:
These questions are asked quite often by individuals who have lost large
amounts of weight and have excess skin folds. We appreciate your desire
to donate. However, this kind of donation is unworkable. Allow me to explain
why, and to give you an alternative.
Our tissue bank
does not obtain skin from these patients for several reasons. First, this
method of obtaining skin is cost prohibitive. The amount of transplantable
tissue obtained from tissue reduction surgery is minimal when compared
to the amount of tissue obtained from a cadaveric (deceased) tissue donor.
The procurement costs would be much greater as it would require the services
of doctors, nurses, anesthetists, and other health care professionals as
well as the use of an operating room and other hospital services. Cadaveric
donation requires only trained tissue recovery technicians, and they can
procure tissue after the body has been sent to the morgue (rather than
in an operating room), thus keeping expenses to a minimum.
Additionally,
cadaveric donated tissue can be used for transplant soon after recovery
(as soon as quality assurance testing is complete), but the FDA requires
that tissues recovered from living donors must be placed into quarantine
for six months. At the end of six months, all serologic testing (HIV and
Hepatitis) must be repeated before that tissue can be used.
It is virtually
impossible to obtain a skin graft from tissue than has been removed during
tissue reduction surgery. The usual procedure for tissue reduction surgery
involves the removal of skin and underlying attached tissues, but skin
grafts used for transplant are only 15/1000 (0.015) of an inch thick and
do not include these underlying tissues. Skin grafts for transplant are
procured by the use of a surgical device called a dermatome, which peels
off a very thin (0.015 inch), uniform layer of skin, and it only works
on skin that is stretched taut over and firmly attached to muscles, such
as in the back, arms, and legs. Very few people have an abdomen taut enough
to permit skin tissue recovery. Skin folds (such as those removed when
someone has lost a large amount of weight) lack the firm attachment to
underlying tissues, and so the dermatome can't work properly.
I do not know
of any tissue bank that would pay for a donor's tissue reduction surgical
expenses for the purpose of obtaining skin for transplantation.
--
Information Provided
Tom Taddonio
Director, University of
Michigan Skin Bank
All rights reserved.
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