Fetal skin cells offer burn treatment breakthough: Less pain & scarring

[Bluebear]

Of course, chances that American burn victims will benefit are extremely slim since babies have to be "killed". :crazy:

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Toronto — In a procedure that could revolutionize burn treatment, doctors have used fetal skin cells to successfully heal young children with severe scalding injuries, avoiding the need to remove a patch of their own skin for a graft....

Dr. Hohlfeld said the researchers thought the fetal-cell sheets would act like a traditional graft, knitting together with the edges of the wound and being incorporated as part of the patient's skin surface. But they were surprised to find that the fetal-cell patch didn't form a bond with the skin, and either dissolved or turned into a gel-like film that was easily removed....

The burns healed over in an average of two weeks; with traditional skin grafting, healing can take up to three months and require more than one operation, the researchers report in Thursday's on-line edition of the Lancet.

Redressing the burns — an often excruciating process with traditional grafting — was much easier for kids to endure, Dr. Hohlfeld said. "Not only did they heal, but it had a very good impact on the pain they were experiencing — you need several dressing changes and usually you have to put them to sleep to do that — and with this technique most of them didn't need it."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050817.wskin0817a/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/

[Ian David]

1. I have no problem with embryonic cells. But fetal cells are different

Hopefully they'll be able to find a way to use non-human fetal cells to use on human burn victims.