The impact of skin banking and the use of its cadaveric skin allografts for severe burn victims in Singapore

The skin banking programme was set-up in Singapore in 1998 to provide a ready source of allografts for patients with severe burns. The process and problems in establishing a local skin bank will be described together with a retrospective review of skin allograft recipients to determine the efficacy of the programme. For the skin bank set-up, pertinent issues related to legislation, methods, logistics, quality assurance and donation rate are discussed. In this retrospective review, a comparison between patients who had early complete excision with skin allograft transplantation and those who received conventional staged excision and coverage, was analysed in terms of clinical profile and outcome using statistical methods. The former group presented a significant reduction of mortality rate and hospital stay by 29% and 10 days, respectively. The establishment of the skin bank has helped in the management of severe burn patients by facilitating early excision and allografting. In a Burn Centre, therefore, it is essential to have an ample supply of skin allograft for burn victims in readiness for mass disaster situations.