First skin bank in the east

Joy Roy Choudhary - Kolkata

West Bengal’s Health and Family Welfare Department at the state-run SSKM hospital in Kolkata is setting up a skin bank, the first of its kind in the eastern region and the second in the country. One such ’skin bank’ is operational at the LTMG hospital, Mumbai.

Dr Anupam Golash, senior plastic surgeon with Westbank hospital, a privately-owned hospital, told Express Healthcare Management, "The project is at an initial stage and the state government has asked us to prepare a blueprint. The skin bank to be set up at the plastic surgery department of SSKM hospital would be operational by the year end." The Westbank hospital is working on the modalities of the new project. The SSKM would provide the basic infrastructure, storage facility and the recurring cost of employing a technician and a plastic surgeon, while Westbank would provide the necessary dermatology expertise, he said.

Since skin grafts are expensive and difficult to procure from living donors, skin from dead bodies were easier to use. Skin obtained from bodies within 12 hours of death can be preserved for about three months, Dr Golash said. A member of Gana Darpan, a city-based NGO working for donation of bodies, said that they have agreed to supply skin from corpses to the proposed bank.