Spray-on skin to be trialed on burns victims after great results

Sep 7 2005

British doctors are about to conduct the first major trial of "spray-on" skin after the technique saved the life of a man with 90 per cent burns.

The technique, which was developed at Royal Perth Hospital in Australia, is seen as quite revolutionary and this will be the first large-scale trial of it's use.

The surgeons based at Queen Victoria Hospital, in East Grinstead, West Sussex, have been given approval for the first controlled clinical studies of the technique for burns victims and children with scalds.

The treatment involves taking skin from the patient which is then made into a mesh so that it can cover a larger area.

This is placed over the wound and acts as a lattice on which cultured skin cells are sprayed using an aerosol.

The new technique, removes the need for painful, disfiguring skin grafts, and is being developed to treat other injuries which involve significant skin loss.

It apparently speeds up the healing process and reduces scarring.

The trials follow pilot studies involving 12 patients.

According to reports, it was so successful that one patient, who received 90 per cent burns to his body after he was doused in petrol and set alight in 2001 was protected from life-threatening infection by spraying the skin on the wound sites, and doctors were able to allow the man's body to heal.

Consultant plastic surgeon at Queen Victoria Hospital, Phil Gilbert says the technique allows large areas of burns to be treated, often covering more than 30 per cent of the body.

The wounds are also able to heal in a shorter time as there are fewer procedures.

Currently, people who suffer serious burns are treated with skin grafts, where skin is transplanted from other areas of their body, or sheets of skin created in the laboratory.

The sheets however can be difficult to handle and take weeks to grow, by which time the patient will already have begun to suffer scarring.

The "spray-on" technique is not only quicker to use, it is also cheaper than sheets of cultured skin. It can also be applied to tricky areas such as the soles of feet, which are hard to graft.

Skin cells have been grown in the laboratory since the mid-1970s.

The "spray-on" technique, developed at Royal Perth Hospital in Australia, can not only be used for burns, but also for pigmentation abnormalities and cosmetic surgery.

The study will trial the spray-on treatment in 24 adults with severe burns and 50 children with scalds.