TRANSPLANTATION AND WOUND HEALING

Transplantation And Wound Healing

Transplantation And Wound Healing

Organ transplantation has been recognized as one of the biggest medical advances of the century as it provides a way of donating organs from deceased or living individuals to the patients with terminal failure of vital organs. Advances in medical technology and science have made transfer of organs and tissue a very important issue. The increasing incidence of vital organ failure and the inadequate supply of organs, especially from cadavers, has created a wide gap between organ supply and organ demand, which has resulted in very long waiting times to receive an organ as well as an increasing number of deaths while waiting (Caplan, 1998). These events have raised many ethical, moral and societal issues regarding supply and organ allocation, xenotransplantation, the risks and benefits of organ donation from living donors, the issues dealing with organ donation from the deceased, and the duties and responsibilities of the medical profession and society to help those who need help.

The shortage of human organs is causing on of the biggest ethical issues in organ transplantation. Even though, transplantation centers would like to transplant all patients who need new the organs, unfortunately, there are not enough living or cadaver donors available to help as many patients as need it. It has also led to the practice of organ sale by entrepreneurs for financial gains in some parts of the world through exploitation of the poor, for the benefit of the wealthy (Pattinson, 2003). In general, in US recipients of organs are chosen from a waiting list after they have been medically determined to be qualified candidate. All potential patients for organ transplant surgery have to be evaluated and tested to be qualified. Organ allocation aims for a satisfactory outcome measured by patient survival and quality of life. Moreover, allocation considers patients waiting time available before transplant take place.

There are four related benefits to recipient site wound healing when follicular implants are used instead of traditional hair grafts. These are minimizing the recipient site surgical wound size, eliminating skin surface deformity, decreasing the dermal fibroplasia associated with healing, and avoiding pigment alteration. (The Donor Foundation 2003)

By limiting the implant to the follicular elements of the skin, the recipient site wound can be just slightly larger than the follicular unit itself so that the unit sits snugly in it. Because the follicular units are so compact, one and small two hair units have essentially the same footprint and can be placed in the same size site; and two, three, and four hair units have the same footprint and can be placed in the same size site. When the stretched slit contracts around the inserted follicular unit, the snug fit minimizes the space for a coagulum to form and reduces the distance for re-epithialization. In other words, the size of the wound is decreased considerably. In this situation, the fibrin "glue" will be maximally effective in securing the implant, exudate and crust formation will be reduced, and the healing ...