The Victoria Hospital (Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute) has set up the Rotary Ashirvad BMCRI Skin Bank (RABSB), first skin bank in Karnataka at an investment of Rs.45 lakhs. A major awareness drive to encourage skin donations to save burn victims is underway. The objective is to ensure that processed skin available to all the burn victims in Karnataka and across south India. The donated skin can be preserved till five years, and any hospital could use it free of cost.

The skin bank is an initiative of department of plastic surgery and the Rotary Bangalore Midtown. The concept for the skin bank was strongly supported by Dr Devadass PK, dean BMCRI and funded by Ashirvad Pipes Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru. The bank which is a sterile zone will functional within three weeks.

“We partnered BMCRI’s Victoria Hospital and MidTown Rotary to offer cost effective and quality burn care treatment to all sections of society. People are not aware about skin donations and the fact that many lives can be saved if skin is donated,” said Pawan Poddar, managing director, Ashirvad Pipes.

The Mahabodhi Burns Centre at Victoria Hospital is the second largest in India after Safdarjung Hospital New Delhi. “This facility lacked a skin bank which would complement the treatment of burns and reduce the suffering and mortality. This burns care centre will admit 160 to 180 burn patients every month,” said Dr Devdass who has been advocating organ donations at BMCRI.

National Burns Centre headed by Dr Sunil Keswani who provided the technical training and support for RABSB said, “Setting up the skin bank is only 30 per cent of the job done. For the balance 70 per cent, we need to work together to create  awareness till we have Skin Collection Centres across Karnataka for patients to access treatment.”

Like any other organ donation, skin donation from a deceased person  needs consent from family. No blood group matching is required. The skin needs to be harvested within 6 hours of death either at hospital or at home. The harvesting is done from hidden areas such as the back and the thigh with no bleeding or deformity to the body and takes less than 45 minutes. The donor should be above 18 years with no skin disease, skin cancer, HIV and hepatitis C.

The harvested skin is processed and stored as per international protocol in the skin bank which is the best biological dressing.  This dressing not only saves lives but but relieves the pain, reduces infection increasing chances of survival significantly, especially when the burn area exceeds 40 per cent.

The skin required for the burn victims within BMCRI will be issued through an indenting process. However, burns patients being treated in any other hospital can avail of it with a request letter from a qualified plastic surgeon with details of the patient, percentage of burns and quantity of skin in square centimeters duly mentioned.

A steering committee is formed with representatives from Rotary Bangalore MidTown, BMCRI, and Ashirvad Pipes, to govern the functioning of skin bank. Dr Gunasekar Vuppalapati, plastic surgeon, Rotary Bangalore Midtown Dr Devdass and the faculty of department of plastic surgery Dr Ramesh K T and Dr Smitha Segu are members of the committee.