It’s easy to overlook the important role skin plays in your overall health. Believe it or not, it’s the largest organ in your body and provides the first layer of protection against infection and disease. On top of that, it regulates body temperature and gives you the ability to feel sensations.
All of this is possible because skin is living tissue. This also means that if badly damaged or missing, the skin needs to be replaced.
At each of our Wound Evolution - Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine locations, our skilled team relies on the most advanced methods available to care for wounds, including bioengineered skin grafts.
What sets bioengineered skin grafts apart
In the past, skin grafting involved taking healthy skin from one part of your body and moving it to another area needing repair, like an open wound. While this approach offers numerous benefits, it requires a second surgical site to harvest the skin graft.
It also comes with a list of possible complications, such as:
- Bleeding
- Graft failure
- Poor healing
- Scarring
- Infection at donor and graft site
Instead, bioengineered skin grafts are created in a lab. It all starts with a few cells that are combined with protein and growth factors. This process helps the original cells multiply and grow into larger pieces of tissue.
Unlike other types of skin grafts, experts can produce bioengineered skin grafts to serve specific purposes. For example, they can make temporary or permanent skin grafts from biological or synthetic materials.
Labs can also create skin grafts to replace the skin’s outermost layer (epidermis), the next layer (dermis), or both.
You can get bioengineered skin substitutes that contain biological molecules that serve as the scaffolding for new skin growth. They can even promote new blood vessel formation and neutralize enzymes in the area that might damage new tissue.
The advantages of bioengineered skin grafts
As we mentioned above, bioengineered skin grafts offer two fairly obvious benefits when it comes to wound care: no need for a second surgical site and personalized wound care. In fact, bioengineered skin grafts offer safe and effective solutions for numerous wounds, including:
- Chronic wounds
- Diabetic wounds
- Venous and arterial ulcers
- Pressure ulcers
- Surgical wounds, including non-healing surgical wounds
But that’s only the beginning.
Bioengineered skin grafts result in fewer complications and less pain, and we apply them in the comfort of our office. Plus, introducing living cells to a wound helps boost the healing process.
The result? Fewer symptoms and improved quality of life for people living with venous leg or diabetic ulcers.
Are you ready to learn more about the benefits of bioengineered skin grafts? Contact one of our convenient locations today to schedule an appointment. We have offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio, Texas, as well as in Overland Park, Kansas.
