Tissue engineered fetal skin constructs for paediatric burns.
Autologous skin-grafting is the gold standard for treatment of deep second and third degree burns. Available bioengineered skin products also necessitate this two-step surgical procedure. Therefore, we developed fetal skin constructs to improve healing of such degree burns. A bank of fetal skin cells was developed from one organ donation (4 cm2 of skin allowing the preparation of several million three-dimensional skin constructs, 9x12 cm, on native horse collagen). Successive fetal constructs were applied to eight patients at every change of dressing during 1-3 weeks in an outpatient setting. Complete closure was rapid (mean 15.3 days [SD 5.5]) with little hypertrophy of new skin and no retraction seen. This simple technique provided complete treatment without auto-grafting, showing that fetal skin cells might have great potential to treat burns and eventually acute and chronic wounds of other types.
Hohlfeld
Judith
J
Department of Paediatric Surgery, University Hospital of Lausanne, CHUV, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
de Buys Roessingh
Anthony
A
Hirt-Burri
Nathalie
N
Chaubert
Pascal
P
Gerber
Stefan
S
Scaletta
Corinne
C
Hohlfeld
Patrick
P
Applegate
Lee Ann
LA
D002056:Burns / Q000628:therapy*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D014015:Tissue Banks; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D014945:Wound Healing