Something in the news today caught my attention. I guess it isn’t really a new event but it is something like a follow up on the event. If you watched Oprah or remember from the new back in February 2009 a woman was mauled and permanently disfigured by a 90kg pet chimpanzee. How it all happened and why it all happened was absolutely tragic, but that’s not really what today’s piece is about.
Charla Nash was left without her hands, nose, lips and eyelids as they were torn off in the horrific event. Even her eyes had to be surgically removed due to infection. All that remains of the poor woman’s face is her forehead. Her story came back to hit the headlines recently as she’s now a potential candidate for a face and hand transplant, which led to me find out about an excellent medical achievement on the skin reconstruction front.
You see science has always been quite the controversy when it comes to benefits. Science cures and kills. That is the undeniable cycle that surrounds it. But this time with the invention of the new biodegradable nonofibre scaffolds, skins can heal safely and effectively.
What is a biodegradable scaffold you ask? Well briefly its a finely electro-spinned 3-dimensional scaffold that is dissolvable and is made from specially developed polymers. It looks similar to tissue paper but the fibers are 100 times finer.
How does it work?
With severe burns, sometimes it is impossible to get enough skin graft from other parts of the body to cover the wound. In such cases surgeons will use this biodegradable scaffold to ‘grow’ the new skin.
The scaffold isn’t placed directly onto the wound until the skin cells grow over it. Think of it like growing grapes -The skin cells of the patient are introduced to the scaffold and will eventually attach themselves to the scaffold. The cells will multiply on it and eventually grow over it, so now you have a sheet of fine skin.
This fine sheet is then placed over the wound covering it while the scaffold harmlessly dissolves away over 6 to 8 weeks to leave only the patient’s skin cells behind.
So there you have it, skin reconstruction just took a step forward by turning biodegradable.
