BRITISH doctors are to conduct the first major trial of “spray-on” skin after the technique saved the life of a man with 90 per cent burns. Surgeons based at Queen Victoria Hospital, in East Grinstead, West Sussex, have been given ethical approval for the first controlled clinical studies of the technique for burns victims and children with scalds. The treatment involves taking skin from the patient which is then made into a mesh so that it can cover a larger area. This is placed over the wound and acts as a lattice on which cultured skin cells are sprayed using an aerosol. The technique, which removes the need for painful, disfiguring skin grafts, is being developed to treat other injuries involving significant skin loss. It is thought to speed the healing process and reduce scarring. The trials come after pilot studies involving 12 patients. One patient, from Southsea, in Hampshire, received 90 per cent burns to his body after he was doused in petrol and set alight in 2001. By spraying skin on the wound sites, doctors were able to allow the man’s body to heal and protect it from life-threatening infection.
