Smart Skins

.

003 | Research

     +   Artificial Skin

Until recently, skin replacement has been proven to be almost impossible. During a traumatic event, a patient would be subjected by only one means of skin replacement, transplantation. Today, there are various methods to replace skin, or at least they are in current studies. J.T. Schuls, Tompkins, and Burke investigate these readily available solutions to skin regeneration or commercial skin applications.

Importance

• Artificial Skin
• Burned victims
• Split-Thickness skin grafts
• 2 approaches to skin replacement

Artificial skin is extremely important because there is a high demand for skin repairt and regeneration due to traumatic accidents. In the US alone, according to the article, there are over 1.5 million Americans that suffer from fires. Over 75,000 of burned patients suffer 3rd degree burns requiring new skin because their body can not repair itself.  If no skin can be found, then the body risks infection and eventually death.

For patients with less than 1st degree burns and to few of 2nd degree burns, they can recover skin loss through a procedure known as split-thickness skin grafts. This process removes excess skin from the patient that was not burned and it is merely placed on the burned location. Another process is through donors, where the skin comes from someone else and is placed on the patient. This procedure can be successful but the body can also be vulnerable to infection, scarring, and pigmentation.

The aim of this article is to investigate 2 primary  approaches to skin replacement and understand the function and structure of artificial skin. Several skin products will be introduced along with brief descriptions and illustrations.


Next