Severe burns are a major cause of death for
people under the age of 40. Over 325,000 North-Americans are hospitalized
annually for severe burns.
In treating burn victims, the burned flesh must be removed, exposing the body's
fat, muscle and other tissues to infection.
The most successful skin transplant surgery uses
skin from an unharmed portion of the body to cover the burned area; this method
allows little chance for rejection of the grafted skin.
When there is little skin on the victim's body to
be used, one alternative is to use skin grafted from human cadavers or from
pigs, whose skin texture is very similar to that of humans. Due to the
ever-present problem of rejection, this type of procedure has increased risks.
Recently, the use of synthetically-grown human epithelial skin has been used in
skin transplantation for burn victims.
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