Establishing Skin Bank -Methodology, Functionality & Challenges at a Tertiary Care Center (Osmania General Hospital)

Introduction: There will a need for large amounts of skin graft for burns patients especially with large burn ulcers. Some of these major burns patients will have poor general condition and paucity of skin graft donor sites. Therefore, there is a constant demand for establishing skin bank in major burn centers like Osmania General Hospital (OGH) which caters to huge burns patients load from states of Telangana & adjacent states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra. Materials & Methods: Detailed submission of the procedural & technical details of a model skin bank established in Osmania general hospital. Enumerating the various challenges that we encountered in establishing a skin bank in a tertiary care center & various challenges encountered while running a skin bank. Results: A total of about 18,100 sq. cm allograft was obtained, Out of which, about 11,000 sq. cm allograft was used for burns patients with better outcome in terms of decreasing the morbidity, hospital stay and better quality of life. Conclusions: Due to it's proven efcacy in saving lives as a temporary biological skin cover for extensive burn patients, the use of human skin allografts is crucial. However, there is a signicant disparity between the demand and supply of these allografts. Therefore, there is a pressing need to establish more skin banks across India. This article aims to provide guidance to others interested in setting up a skin bank.