Dinesh Kamath's news 'Need to create awareness about skin donation' that was published in Newsband

Need to create awareness about skin donation

By Dinesh Kamath

Above Picture: National Burns Center at Airoli

NAVI MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai has shown great advancement in medical field and the residents of the city are found to be totally aware about the roles they have to play to help activities like organ donations and heart transplants. The city has National Burns Center too at Airoli which has played useful role in treating burn victims. This Center does get skin donors but the need for skin is tremendous as compared to the quantity of skin donated. The skin is required not only for burn victims but also for orthopaedic, diabetic, accidental and cancer patients.

Sufficient skin donations are must for treatment of all the patients with burns and trauma, especially to help wounds heal quickly and prevent infection. In case of burns, skin—the primary protective barrier of the body—is destroyed and the body is exposed to infectious agents. If the burnt area is not immediately covered with some substitutes, then patients will have infection, fluid loss and die.

In case of lesser burns, auto-graft or skin from the unburnt area of the patient is taken out and put on the burn wound to cover it. But when the percentage of burn is more than 50%, then the need for donated skins is felt.

That’s the reason why the awareness about skin donation is being created among the residents of the city. Skin donated after death is found to be better than artificial and expensive skin substitutes available in the foreign market.

The spokesperson of National Burns Center at Airoli said that more and more burn victims can be saved if only there are enough skins in the bank. There is need to create in a big way the awareness about usefulness of skin donation in the city, he added.