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Original Article Plastic and Aesthetic Research

First-year experience of a new skin bank in

Brazil

Alysson Rogerio Matioski, Clóvis Rodrigo Guimarães Braz Pereira da Silva,
Diogo Rodrigues da Silva-Cunha, Luiz Henrique Auerswald Calomeno,
Flávia Thaiana Bonato, Marcelus Vinícios Araujo Nigro
Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, Evangelical University Hospital of Curitiba, Curitiba, Paraná 80730150, Brazil.
Address for correspondence: Dr. Alysson Rogerio Matioski, Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, Evangelical University Hospital of Curitiba,
Curitiba, Paraná 80730150, Brazil. E-mail: alymatioski@yahoo.com.br

ABSTRACT
Aim: To report the 1st year experience of the skin bank opened at the Evangelical University Hospital
of Curitiba (HUEC), Brazil in June 2013. Methods: A retrospective statistical and epidemiological study
was conducted from data obtained from the activities of the HUEC skin bank from June 2013 to August
2014. Results: The HUEC skin bank harvested tissue from 45 cadaveric donors (46.6% female and 53.3%
male), with an average age of 36.42. The white skin-colored donors represented 91% of donations.
Most causes of death were of neurological origin (55.6%). Eighty-one batches were harvested. The
bank processed 31,314.63 cm² of skin for transplantation (41 batches), and 38 batches were discarded.
The distributed allografts totaled 28,940.82 cm², with tissue from a single donor benefitting up to
5 patients. A total of 52 transplant procedures were performed (66.6% of recipients were male and
33.3% female), burn victims represented 83.3% of the recipients. Conclusion: The HUEC skin bank
provides skin primarily for victims with severe third-degree burns, mostly men, and who are treated
and transplanted in the HUEC as a result of high demand. The successful outcomes highlight the
potential use for other clinical indications.

Key words:
Allograft, Brazil, burns, donation, Evangelical University Hospital of Curitiba, skin, skin bank

INTRODUCTION Although allografts are primarily used in the treatment of
severe burns, they can also be used for many indications,
Burns are an important public health problem. In Brazil, including extensive skin loss, surgical wounds, lower
[1]
it is estimated that they are the cause of approximately limb ulcers, pyoderma gangrenosum of diabetic feet and
1,000,000 accidents per year. Of these, 100,000 patients bullous diseases. In addition to serving as a barrier against
will require hospital care, and about 2,500 will die directly infection, allografts serve as a temporary biological
[2]
or indirectly as a result of their injuries. One of the best dressing to help control pain, protect deep structures,
ways to treat burn patients is by the use of allografts, promote re‑epithelialization and restore the important
which remain the biological dressing of choice and are functions of the skin such as thermal regulation and
an important tool. In many cases they can be used for
the effective reconstruction of the dermal component. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
[3]
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix,
Access this article online tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited
and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
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Website: For reprints contact: reprints@medknow.com
www.parjournal.net
How to cite this article: Matioski AR, da Silva CR, da Silva-Cunha DR,
Calomeno LH, Bonato FT, Nigro MA. First-year experience of a new
DOI:
10.4103/2347-9264.169496 skin bank in Brazil. Plast Aesthet Res 2015;2:326-31.
Received: 20-03-2015; Accepted: 06-09-2015

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