Burns are one of the major health issues that considerably affect variable groups of the population, varying in age and severity. This is attributed to illiteracy, poverty and low level safety consciousness. Most of them belonging to lower or middle income strata. Nearly 10% are life threatening and require hospitalisation while approximately 50% succumb to injuries. Countless people get crippled and require multiple surgeries and prolonged rehabilitation.When the skin gets badly burned or damaged, it is unable to repair itself without external help, hence skin grafting is considered the gold standard treatment technique.

One of the major burden in the surgical treatment is the availability of skin for grafting. As for the non-surgical treatment different modalities of skin dressing or substitutes are available but not as an absolute treatment. Skin procurement and transplantation is a simple procedure which can be as lifesaving as organ transplantation. A single donor’s tissue may save or improve lives of numerous patients. The skin is taken from the back, thighs and legs and there is no bleeding or disfigurement of the body. Brain dead patients can be potential donors. It can also be donated within in 6 hours from the time of natural death. Out of the eight layers, only 1/8th, i.e. the uppermost layer is harvested and takes about 45 minutes for the procedure to be completed. The doctors then bandage the parts from where the skin was harvested in a proper way.

Any person above 18 years of age without an upper limit, irrespective of their sex, blood group and health conditions like diabetes and hypertension are eligible to donate; unlike kidney, liver or bone marrow transplant where blood or tissue match between donor and recipient is required. Anyone’s healthy skin can be put on anyone. Only those suffering from transmissible diseases, any kind of skin infection and having evidence of skin cancer, cannot donate.

Treatment for severe and critical burn, with donated skin, can greatly improve recovery rates and regeneration of the patient’s skin. It’s use can lessen morbidity, suffering and spare limbs and lives. The use of allograft tissues in clinical practice has become not only an acceptable means of disease treatment, but in many cases a desirable one.

Sadly, the demand is higher than the supply which is the main reason for potential patients being denied a better quality of life. There are a lot of negative attitudes associated as knowledge of what it entails remains low while misconceptions are high. As a result, many people are hesitant to sign up as donors leading to huge loss of valuable tissue each year.Acceptability and need has become the impetus for tissue banking. It involves public trust, one that demands a profound respect for the dignity and worth of human life. It is only through the humanitarian actions of donors and donor families, people helping people, the noblest of principles; that tissue transplantation is possible. There are only a few skin banks in India, due to low governmental and media support for tissue procurement programs and lesser organisations to regulate it’s banking and transplantation. Hence, it is imperative to transfer knowledge and positive attitude during health professional training on the usefulness of banked skin. Strategic communications campaign, new tactics and techniques should be implemented to encourage the people to be more open to skin donation, in order to gain a better understanding. Online and offline quizzes, workshops and posters along with inspiring stories of people who donated their skin and of those who were saved in time due to it’s availability, might motivate people to come forward to donate. It will help to reaffirm and indicate continued endeavours as knowledge of the procedure beforehand will predict favourable attitudes to skin donation and banking in the future.

We need to understand that the government alone cannot bring a resolution, but working at an individual level will solve the problem as standing up for ourselves and thinking of ways to overcome it will lead the society to a better tomorrow.