In the St. Nicholas Hospital, a one-year-old boy was transplanted with skin from a posthumous donor. Such a successful operation was carried out for the first time in Ukraine.
The First Medical Association of Lviv and the Ministry of Health reported that one-year-old Andriyko suffered burns to 25% of her skin — her chin, neck, and chest. It happened when he pulled the kettle by the wire and poured boiling water on himself. Doctors stabilized the child, but the boyʼs skin was so badly burned that it could no longer recover on its own.
Burn surgeons benefit from the experience of developed countries by choosing a skin transplant from a posthumous donor. Before that, the First Medical Association of Lviv trained surgeons for several years. The Skin Bank, created on the basis of one of the largest burn centers in western Ukraine, was available to them.
Surgeons removed the upper affected tissue fragments from the child and closed the wounds with donor skin. It is not able to take root and can stay on the body for up to several weeks. The purpose of such transplantation is to protect the burned areas and create the most natural conditions for the fastest healing of wounds. A few weeks later, the childʼs wounds were closed with her own skin.
Doctors declared the very high efficiency of the operation and advocated the creation of more skin banks, especially against the background of the war.
"Many of the wounded are sent to Lviv. The use of donor skin makes it possible to close deep defects, prepare wounds for further operations in the best possible way, and significantly speed up the healing process," say the doctors.