Skin substitutes – the application of tissue engineering in burn treatment Part 1.

Author(s): AGNIESZKA KLAMA-BARYŁA, JUSTYNA GLIK, MAREK KAWECKI, MARIUSZ NOWAK, ALEKSANDER L. SIEROŃ

Skin is the largest organ of the human body which connects the environment with the body in a multifunctional manner. In the event of vast and severe burns that require more of autologous skin that could be provided to exchange burnt wound with a surgical wound, the tissue must be replaced with a substitute. Autografts involve intervention into the patient’s body (collecting his own skin from healthy sites) resulting in new open wounds. In extensive burns there are either no or limited donor sites available from which skin could be collected. The only alternative in the therapy of subjects suffering from extensive burns is to replace patient’s burnt skin with – substitutes.