Awareness and attitude of general population regarding allograft skin donation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Cross-sectional study

Abstract

IntroductionBurns are one of the major health issues that considerably affect variable groups of the population, varying in age and severity. Despite advances in burn surgical and non-surgical treatments, patient's appearance still represents public health issue. In regards to surgical treatment of burns, skin grafting is still considered the gold standard. One of the major burdens in the burn surgical treatments is the availability of the skin for grafting. As for the non-surgical treatment different modalities of skin dressings or substitutes are still available as an option. MethodsA validated questionnaire based study was utilized to acquire assessment of the overall general population knowledge, awareness and attitude toward skin donation. In addition, it surveyed community personal willingness to donate their skin to a skin bank after being deceased, to help solve skin shortages due to the lack of skin banks in Saudi Arabia. ResultsA total of 698 individuals completed the questionnaire over the period of 5 months, from February 2018 till June 2018. Married, postgraduate females, with a history of burn in close family members or similar individuals showed a positive attitude toward skin donation. However, 22% of the participants did not agree to donate their skin due to religious reasons. ConclusionThe study concluded that the majority of participants were willing to donate their skin, and they were aware of the concept of skin donation and its crucial importance in surgical burn management. The current study showed the majority of participants were aware of skin donation and skin use for burn treatment, in addition to having positive attitude toward skin donation. Men were more aware than the women of skin donation. Religious concern was a major reason for participants’ skin donation refusal, an issue that can be addressed by contacting Islamic scholars to issue a Fatwa approving the cause.