Doctors at Max hospital Delhi, recently performed a surgery on a 35 year old patient with 35% burns, leaving her right side completely disfigured. In this operation they used a genetically engineered skin tissue to ensure that the new skin was flexible and had natural elasticity. After spending over two months in a hospital in Assam and going through almost nine months of physiotherapy, the patient could still not keep her neck straight and had difficulty in moving her hand. Dr Sunil Choudhary director, aesthetic and reconstructive surgery at Max, explained that in burn injuries, the dermis which ensures elasticity and flexibility gets damaged, so in routine autologous skin grafts the new skin comes but it remains tight. In genetically engineered or artificial skin tissue, this problem is overcome.
In a two stage surgery, doctors first removed the scarred skin, including the dermis and then stabled the srtificial skin on to the muscles. The operated portion is then covered in a nano crystalline silver dressing, which protects the injury site from infection. Within 3-4 weeks, new blood vessels and tissue grew on the artificial skin and it became a part of the body. The advantage of this skin is that the chances of rejection are nil.
In the second stage doctors took skin grafts from her thigh and grafted it on the artifical skin. The autologous skin graft ensures that the colour of the new skin remains the same.
In this case five peices of artificial skin were used. The grafts are slowly getting back the original color and will take three months to fully recover.
Cost of artificial skin : Rs 70,000 / peice. Total cost of the above treatment approx Rs 5 lakhs