Skin Transplantation

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.