On the possibility of establishing skin banks

Abstract

IT needs no argument to convince traumatic and plastic surgeons that one of the greatest needs at present is a readily available source of skin for covering large superficial areas of the body lost by trauma. Indeed, in certain eventualities the need may become desperate. It therefore behoves us to take stock and determine what shall be done. Fig. I shows a common result of loss of surface by thermal trauma. How many weeks of hard work by scarce nurses does it take to attain such a sorrowful result ? How many patient-bed days lost to the harassed hospital administrator ? And how many more weeks will the same patient occupy a bed in a plastic surgery department ? The direct financial loss and indirect economic loss seem both absurd and tragic. In an emergency hospital beds would soon be seriously blocked by these patients. But suppose we could, within a comparatively few F~G. hours, have the whole of the traumatised Result of extensive skin loss from thermal trauma. area clean and covered with skin grafts and pressure dressings, how the whole picture would change. The object of this paper is to correlate what is known, to make logical deductions, and thereby possibly open up paths of advance whereby we may be in a better position to meet the appalling amount of work to be thrust upon hospitals, doctors, and nurses in the event of another foolish world catastrophe.