Skin banks only accept donations from deceased individuals who have registered their desire to donate organs. Grafted skin can come from autografts or allografts, with the latter being taken from screened cadavers. Fresh skin donations are preferred, but frozen specimens are also used. Live skin donations are not accepted, and a skin donor’s legacy can be preserved for up to five years.
A skin donor is a deceased person who expressed a lifetime wish to donate all or some organs after death to meet local transplant needs. So-called skin banks typically do not accept skin donations from medical procedures such as grafts after liposuction or amputation as it is much less expensive to wait for a person to die. At that point, a skilled medical technician is trained to quickly obtain up to 10 square feet (nearly 1 square meter) of donated skin for use in grafting procedures that are often performed after severe burns.
According to the University of Michigan Trauma Burn Center, grafted skin comes from two sources. Autografts involve skin being taken from elsewhere on the victim’s body and transplanted over lacerations or burns. Allografts are taken from cadavers that have been screened for disease and suitability for donation. These people have registered their desire to donate their organs on their driver’s license or through a reputable transplant registry such as the United States Donation Program run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Even organ donations can take place if the family of the deceased approves.
Grafts from a skin donor will provide a valuable patch, although the body’s immune system rejects foreign skin more often in one to three weeks. However, it lasts for a critical period, when the body needs enhanced protection against infections and a natural place for skin regeneration. According to medical authorities, a fresh, non-frozen skin donation has the best longevity and protective qualities; however, frozen specimens are also routinely used for grafting, particularly when a fresh skin donor is not readily available.
Skin banks do not view a live skin donor favorably, such as when drastic weight loss causes excessive skin flaps. According to Alabama plastic surgeon Rob Oliver Jr. on his Plastic Surgery 101 website, living skin pales in comparison to cadaveric skin in quality and surface area. UM’s Trauma Burn Center adds affordability to the list of benefits for cadaver-derived skin. In 2011, the center said it did not know of any skin banks that would accept the donation of live skin in exchange for exemption from the cost of tissue reduction surgery.
A skin donor’s legacy is often suspended in liquid preservation. This can keep the skin fresh for about two weeks. Before that period expires, unused grafts will be frozen after adding so-called cryoprotectants to facilitate a process that can preserve the skin for up to five years.
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