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Excess Skin? Donate it!

By HERWriter
 
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If you're thinking about having surgery to remove excess skin after weight loss, don't let that excised skin be discarded. Recycle it by donating it to the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF), the only U.S. donor program for living skin.

Donated skin from the deceased has been used to replace burned skin, in breast reconstruction and for a variety of other purposes for many years. As the need for donated skin has skyrocketed however, after much research, techniques have been devised that make it possible to use living skin.

Martha Anderson of the MTF explains, "Recipients do not have to take antirejection drugs for living skin or deceased skin, because we have taken the cells out. We don't have to do blood-type matching, either -- none of the matching you have to do with organs."

It is illegal to purchase or sell donor tissue according to the National Organ Transplant Act. Anyone interested in donating skin can contact the MTF.

https://www.empowher.com/news/herarticle/2010/04/07/do-you-have-excess-skin-weight-loss-donate-it

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Jody Smith
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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.