The clinical use of cryopreserved human skin allografts for transplantation

Abstract Background The biological recovery of human skin allografts is the gold standard for preservation in Skin Banks. However, there is no worldwide consensus about specific allocation criteria for preserved human skin allografts with living cells. A report is presented on the results of 5 years of experience of using human skin allografts in burned patient in the Skin and Tissue Bank at Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitacion . Material and methods The human skin allografts were obtained from multi-organ donors, processed and preserved at −80 °C for 12 months. Allocation criteria were performed according to blood type match, clinical history, and burned body surface. Results Up to now, the Skin and Tissue Bank at Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitacion has processed and recovered 125,000 cm 2 of human skin allografts. It has performed 34 surgical implants on 21 burned patients. The average of burn body surface was 59.2%. More than two-thirds (67.7%) of recipients of skin allografts were matched of the same to type blood of the donor, and 66.6% survived after 126 days hospital stay. Conclusion It is proposed to consider recipient's blood group as allocation criteria to assign tissue; and use human skin allografts on patiens affected with burns over 30% of body surface (according the “rule of the 9”).