Tuesday, June 14, 2011
-
Packaged skin heals wounds faster
When a band-aid just won't cut it, doctors
are now using a futuristic tool called bio-engineered tissue. The tissue
is essentially packaged skin taken from pig intestine and human
foreskin that can simply be placed on a wound.
The square of tissue acts like a scaffold for
new cells to latch onto. The NIH said if you zoomed in on the tissue
you would see something like a giant loofah sponge with interconnected
cells.
Dr. Ameer Khan, a family medicine physician
at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, uses the tissue for persistent wounds
and said it can heal the wound three or four weeks faster than
traditional treatments. He said doctors can use the tissue on any kind
of wounds such as diabetes ulcers and arterial wounds.
According to the NIH, researchers are still
investigating all of the uses for this tissue including ligament
reconstruction and treating incontinence, but more than a dozen
companies have already capitalized on the product.
Watch the video here.
|