Skin banking in the treatment of burns. A practical approach to the processing and storing of allografts.

The good resuts achieved by treating extensive thermal burns with skin allografts have led to the development of effective long time preservation methods. Human skin can be frozen and kept viable at low temperatures by using cryoprotective media containing glycerol or dimethylsulfoxide. The biological properties of skin grafts thus treated have been investigated and their clinical success is well documented. Many burn centres have organized frozen skin banks based on liquid nitrogen (--196 degrees C) as the refrigerating medium. Such systems are expensive and require careful handling, regular control, and afterfilling. This is a report of a skin bank organized in an electric freezer, equipped with a recorder for continuous temperature registration, and with an alarm system. The storage temperature is --86 degrees C and the theoretical capacity approximately 3 m2 of skin. This bank has proved to be inexpensive, dependable and easy to use. Maintenance problems are minimal, and the running cost is very low. Skin allografts have been found viable after up to 2 years of storage.