Skin facts
The skin is the largest organ of the human body. An average adult has about two square yards of skin which protects the inside of the body from the outside environment. The skin serves a number of important roles including protecting the tissue of the body from bacteria and viruses and regulating body temperature. It also acts as a sensory organ providing feeling for cold, heat, wet, dry, and movement as air passes across its surface.
The skin can be damaged in a variety of ways, including by being burned. Most burns are caused by heat such as fire, steam, or hot liquids. Serious burns can also be caused by chemicals, electricity, and exposure to the sun. Healthy skin consists of three layers of tissue. Burns are classified based on many of these layers are damaged by the burn.
• First-degree burns – These burns include only the top layer (epidermis) of the skin. Sunburn is often a first degree burn.
• Second-degree burns – These burns extend into the middle layer of the skin (dermis). Second degree burns are often classified as superficial (affecting less of the dermis) or deep (involving more of the thickness of the dermis). Second degree burns often cause blisters.
• Third-degree burns- These burns include all three layers of the skin- the epidermis, dermis, and fat layer. In many cases, other structures in the skin including the sweat glands, hair follicles, and nerve endings are destroyed in third-degree burns. These are typically the least painful burns because the nerve endings have been destroyed and can no longer send pain signals to the brain.
In addition to looking at how deep a burn is doctors classify burns by how severe they are.
All first-degree and some second-degree burns that cover less than 10 percent of the body are considered minor. These burns will heal with little or no treatment. Deeper burns and those burns that cover a larger portion of the body are classified as moderate or severe. These burns often cause complications including fluid seepage out of the burned tissues resulting in dehydration. Larger and deeper burns often form scar tissue that prevents clean healing and can cut off circulation to surrounding tissue or prevent joints from moving.
Why people need skin grafts
Severe burns can take many weeks or months to heal. If the damaged skin is left open during the healing process, infection can easily set in. Doctors use skin transplants, which are called skin grafts, to protect the burned area while it is healing. If enough healthy skin is available, someone who is burned may be able to supply skin from another area of the body for the skin graft. If the patient is too sick to allow more skin to be removed, or if the burns are too extensive so there is not enough healthy skin left, donor skin can be used from someone who has died.
Skin grafts can also be used to help patients who have very large wounds in their skin, ulcers on the skin that will not heal, infections that caused large areas of skin to be lost, cosmetic surgeries for skin damage, or surgeries to remove skin cancer.
The need for skin donations
In the United States, over two million people need medical for treatment for burns each year, and between 3,000 and 4,000 people die from burn injuries. Donated skin can help prevent infection and restore balance to body systems. It can also help encourage healthy new skin to grow in areas where burned skin has not been able to heal. Skin grafts also allow doctors to reduce scar tissue which can help restore the appearance of burned skin.
Skin donors provide healing
For people who have been badly burned, skin donors can make the difference between healthy new skin and burned skin that will not heal. To find out more about how you can be an organ donor, visit the Donate Life America website.
Sources:
Merck Manuals Online
National Institutes of Health Medline Plus: Skin Conditions
National Institutes of Health Medline Plus: Skin Grafts
American Burn Association White Paper: Surgical Management of the Burn Wound