The unique operation was performed at the Saint Nicholas Children’s Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv. The First TMO has been preparing for this step for several years, because it is a revolutionary approach for Ukraine.
Andriyko received burns to 25% of his skin: chin, neck and chest. His mother Natalya was distracted to prepare her son’s porridge. But in a moment I heard a scream. The kid pulled the kettle by the wire and poured boiling water over himself.
The child was immediately taken to the burn unit of the children’s hospital. In the intensive care unit, doctors tried all night to stabilize the condition of the one-year-old child. And the doctors succeeded. However, the boy’s skin was so affected by burns in places that it could no longer recover on its own. Burn surgeons decide to use a revolutionary approach for Andriyka in Ukraine’s treatment – to transplant skin from a posthumous donor to the baby, as they have been doing for decades in developed countries.
The First Medical Association of Lviv had been preparing for this step for several years. The first skin bank in the western regions of Ukraine was created on the basis of one of the largest burn centers. This became possible, in particular, thanks to last year’s changes to the law on transplantation.
One-year-old Andriyko became the first child whose treatment was successfully started using donor skin. And it worked. After removing the upper, affected tissue fragments, burn surgeons closed the wounds with donor skin. It is not able to take root and can stay on the patient’s body for up to several weeks. The purpose of such transplantation is to protect the burned areas and create the most natural conditions necessary for the fastest healing of wounds. And a few weeks after that, Andriyko was ready for the next step – autotransplantation – closing the wound with his own skin.
“The creation of Skin Banks is now more relevant than ever. After all, burns are one of the most frequent causes of military and civilian injuries during wartime. Many of the wounded are sent to Lviv. The use of donor skin makes it possible to close deep defects, prepare wounds for further operations in the best possible way, and significantly speed up the healing process. And it is important that from now on, thanks to the transplantation of donor skin, our doctors can save the lives of not only adult patients with burns, but also children from all over Ukraine,” explains the First Medical Association of Lviv.
Doctors emphasize: donor skin has a number of advantages, compared to synthetic substitutes, and helps prepare the wound for closing with one’s own skin.
One-year-old Andriyko is the first patient who received a skin transplant from a posthumous donor, already at home. He returns to his doctors only for bandages. Next comes rehabilitation. The most important homework for parents today is to do exercises with Andriyk to slow down the growth of scars.
We will remind you that last year a record number of transplants were performed in Lviv, saving almost a hundred Ukrainians in Ukraine. Medical teams of the First Medical Association transplanted 7 hearts, 12 livers and 78 kidneys: of them, three kidneys and one liver were given to children.