What to do with extra skin?

You could do what this wonderful woman did. LOS ANGELES -- It is said that one person's loss can be another's gain. NBC4's Dr. Bruce Hensel said this is certainly true for an Eagle Rock woman who lost 145 pounds and donated her excess skin to help other patients who need it. Sheila Tehrani just got a new car, but she can't take the wheel just yet. "My abdomen is just in the way, the skin is just in the way and it wouldn't be safe or comfortable," said Tehrani. Sheila stopped driving in 1996 because at 579 pounds she couldn't fit into her car anymore. Finally, she decided to get lap band surgery, which restricted the size of her stomach. One year later, and 145 pounds lighter, Sheila continues to drop weight. Hensel said the rapid weight loss resulted in a lot of loose skin. The sheer weight of the hanging skin is causing backaches and numbness in her legs. Doctors at the oBand Surgery Center offered to remove the skin for her. In May, Sheila underwent a four-hour surgery and had close to 50 pounds of skin removed. She donated that skin to the non-profit Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, which will use that excess skin to help other patients undergoing hernia operations, breast and pelvic floor reconstruction. After six weeks of recovery Sheila finally got into her new car and drove for the first time in 10 years. "It's very liberating being able to maybe go back to school or to get a job. I think it will change my life a great deal," said Tehrani. Last year, more than 200,000 patients received skin grafts donations from weight loss patients. What an awesome gift.

Where was this from?   When I asked this is the response I got:

Can I donate excess skin to a skin bank?

Answer: These questions are asked quite often by individuals who have lost large amounts of weight and have excess skin folds. We appreciate your desire to donate. However, this kind of donation is unworkable. Allow me to explain why, and to give you an alternative.

Our tissue bank does not obtain skin from these patients for several reasons. First, this method of obtaining skin is cost prohibitive. The amount of transplantable tissue obtained from tissue reduction surgery is minimal when compared to the amount of tissue obtained from a cadaveric (deceased) tissue donor. The procurement costs would be much greater as it would require the services of doctors, nurses, anesthetists, and other health care professionals as well as the use of an operating room and other hospital services. Cadaveric donation requires only trained tissue recovery technicians, and they can procure tissue after the body has been sent to the morgue (rather than in an operating room), thus keeping expenses to a minimum.

Additionally, cadaveric donated tissue can be used for transplant soon after recovery (as soon as quality assurance testing is complete), but the FDA requires that tissues recovered from living donors must be placed into quarantine for six months. At the end of six months, all serologic testing (HIV and Hepatitis) must be repeated before that tissue can be used.

It is virtually impossible to obtain a skin graft from tissue than has been removed during tissue reduction surgery. The usual procedure for tissue reduction surgery involves the removal of skin and underlying attached tissues, but skin grafts used for transplant are only 15/1000 (0.015) of an inch thick and do not include these underlying tissues. Skin grafts for transplant are procured by the use of a surgical device called a dermatome, which peels off a very thin (0.015 inch), uniform layer of skin, and it only works on skin that is stretched taut over and firmly attached to muscles, such as in the back, arms, and legs. Very few people have an abdomen taut enough to permit skin tissue recovery. Skin folds (such as those removed when someone has lost a large amount of weight) lack the firm attachment to underlying tissues, and so the dermatome can't work properly. 

***** It is possible to "harvest" skin from live donors. But the equipment needed to do this is horrendously expensive,..

and very, very few burn centers have it. It's just not a cost effective procedure, considering the procedure results in an allograft that is going to die off in a matter of days and will need to be replaced. In addition, the live skin that might be harvested needs to fit many criteria. For starters, it has to be very healthy, of sufficient size and shape, and cannot be scarred or stretched out. It also needs to be screened for communicable diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, and the like. Then the harvested skin needs to be kept alive until it is used as a temporary skin graft. Very few surgical procedures result in this kind of harvestable skin; certainly tummy tucks or removal of saggy underarm skin are not among them. Most burn centers prefer to allocate precious resources to things that are going to provide the best possible care for critically ill patients.

I was also told this absolutely is a myth by at least 3 doctors.  Interesting.

I was told that too, but about a month or so ago one of the gals on here gave a web site that is asking for us WLS to donate excess skin, but they did not offer any compensation just they would like to have the skin which is fine with me if I could:  1 get up the nerve to do it  2 get together the cash as my insurance will pay nothing.

This story is out of Los Angeles, California. I just got this story off of nbc4.tv website today. I dont claim to know about it, tho. lol I just think, if this IS possible, what a wonderful donation. So many burn victims could make use of this.

I think where the urban legend really comes in is when people think they can get a free tummy tuck by donating skin. the center may be willing to accept the donated skin, just not willing pay $8-10,000  for someone's tummy tuck to get it.

Hi Courtney, If you have the time and interest you might want to try to track down nbc 4's sources to get the strait dope. If you do let us know what you find. Makes for very interesting and lively conversation.  Michelle R OKC

Hi Courtney! I found the company that uses the skins for tissue donations and graphs. They don't list burn victims as recipients and maybe that's where the big difference is. This was very enlightening:

http://www.mtfeinformation.org/

Onward! Frances