MYTH: You canNOT donate your skin for free Plastics!

[Guest guest]

Can I donate excess skin to a skin bank?

Question:

I recently lost a great deal of weight and I have a lots of excess

skin. Can I donate my excess skin to a skin bank to help burn

patients? Will a tissue bank pay for my skin reduction surgery if I

agree to donate my tissue?

Answer:

These questions are asked quite often by individuals who have lost

large amounts of weight and have excess skin folds. We appreciate

your desire to donate. However, this kind of donation is unworkable.

Allow me to explain why, and to give you an alternative.

Our tissue bank does not obtain skin from these patients for several

reasons. First, this method of obtaining skin is cost prohibitive.

The amount of transplantable tissue obtained from tissue reduction

surgery is minimal when compared to the amount of tissue obtained

from a cadaveric (deceased) tissue donor. The procurement costs

would be much greater as it would require the services of doctors,

nurses, anesthetists, and other health care professionals as well as

the use of an operating room and other hospital services. Cadaveric

donation requires only trained tissue recovery technicians, and they

can procure tissue after the body has been sent to the morgue

(rather than in an operating room), thus keeping expenses to a

minimum.

Additionally, cadaveric donated tissue can be used for transplant

soon after recovery (as soon as quality assurance testing is

complete), but the FDA requires that tissues recovered from living

donors must be placed into quarantine for six months. At the end of

six months, all serologic testing (HIV and Hepatitis) must be

repeated before that tissue can be used.

It is virtually impossible to obtain a skin graft from tissue than

has been removed during tissue reduction surgery. The usual

procedure for tissue reduction surgery involves the removal of skin

and underlying attached tissues, but skin grafts used for transplant

are only 15/1000 (0.015) of an inch thick and do not include these

underlying tissues. Skin grafts for transplant are procured by the

use of a surgical device called a dermatome, which peels off a very

thin (0.015 inch), uniform layer of skin, and it only works on skin

that is stretched taut over and firmly attached to muscles, such as

in the back, arms, and legs. Very few people have an abdomen taut

enough to permit skin tissue recovery. Skin folds (such as those

removed when someone has lost a large amount of weight) lack the

firm attachment to underlying tissues, and so the dermatome can't

work properly.

I do not know of any tissue bank that would pay for a donor's tissue

reduction surgical expenses for the purpose of obtaining skin for

transplantation.

I would like to encourage you to be sure that your family knows you

would like to donate your tissues upon death. Your gift can save

lives and greatly reduce suffering. ( click here to learn more about

skin and also learn about the tissue shortage).

Tom Taddonio

Director, University of Michigan Skin Bank