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Sprayable Skin:  The Skin Graft of the Future

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Sprayable Skin:  The Skin Graft of the Future

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The FDA has just approved a new treatment for burn patients. RECELL takes a very small sample of the patient's skin and makes a "sprayable skin" suspension that can be applied to the wound bed, greatly reducing the need for multiple painful skin grafts.

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AVITA Medical
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

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September 20, 2018

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RECELL, a product introduced in the US by AVITA Medical, uses a sample of a patient's own skin in order to create a sprayable suspension that helps regenerate skin. This "Regenerative Epidermal Suspension" (RES) contains keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and melanocytes, which are critical for wound healing. After the burned tissue has been excised, a sample of healthy tissue is grafted from the patient. Within 30 minutes, the RES is ready to apply to the wound bed. RECELL is typically used in conjunction with a meshed autograft (skin graft taken from the same patient), but has the potential to be used by itself.

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AVITA Medical's first product, the RECELL ® System, is a device that enables healthcare professionals to produce a suspension of Spray-On Skin™ Cells using a small sample of the patient's own skin. This suspension contains the cells necessary to regenerate the outer layer of natural, healthy skin and is prepared and applied at the point-of-care in as little as 30 minutes.

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Less skin used to create RECELL as compared to traditional skin graft (A fraction sized skin piece is used compared to traditional graft)

Less painful than traditional skin graft

Results show better, more complete healing compared to traditional skin graft (less webbing that you see with meshed skin grafts)

Hospital time is potentially reduced (less skin grafts to recover from, less chance of grafts failing and having to re-graft)

Less opportunity for infection with smaller skin sample taken

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Very recently approved by the FDA

In many cases, skin graft will still have to be taken

Effectiveness has not been established for use in treating full thickness burns, even with skin graft

Not approved for patients under 18 years of age

Expensive (estimated price will be between $5000-$10,000 per unit)

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As someone who works in the operating room in burn cases, this new treatment almost seems to good to be true. Traditionally, depending on the severity of the burn, these patients are in the operating room several times a week getting their burns excised and grafted. The process is excruciating for patients, and often times they are in the hospital for months fighting off infections and trying to get their pain under control. Being able to take a small piece of skin in order to create a sprayable skin that helps wound healing is remarkable. The fact that RECELL also seems to improve healing times and appearance is outstanding. Now that this product is FDA approved, I would like to see more research done in determining if RECELL can be used completely by itself without being sprayed over a graft. I think it would also be interesting to compare overall hospital stay costs in treating a burn with RECELL as compared to more traditional methods. While the treatment is expensive, I hope it can be proven that the money is saved in less hospital days and drugs charged to the patient. Overall, I think this is a fantastic step in treating burns more effectively, less painfully, and providing an opportunity for better cosmetic outcomes for our patients.

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My 5 strengths are relator, developer, harmony, restorative, and empathy. For my team, I have selected Alice (Achiever), Andrew (Activator), Matthew (Maximizer), Sheila (Strategic), and William (Woo). My main reason for choosing these individuals was that none of their strengths overlapped with mine. I thought that this would be best because it meant that everyone brought something new and different to the table. But, each of them have something to offer individually that would help our team in convincing the hospital to allow RECELL to be used. With Alice, she would be a hard worker and ensure that the team remained productive. Andrew would be able to take all of the brainstorming from the team and be able to turn it into an action plan. Sheila would be helpful with navigating the project. As most projects tend to hit snags at some point, she would be able to create new ways to think and carry the project to its finishing point. William would contribute by being able to catch the ear of the people or committees that would decide if RECELL is a good choice for the hospital and persuade them that this is the most optimal choice for treating burn patients. Finally, Matthew would be able to take all of the ideas, work, and input and put the finishing touches on the project before it would be presented. As many of these characteristics are considered strong, I would be there to tie everyone together, to keep the peace, and promote positive group relations.

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AVITA Medical. (2018). About RECELL system in the United States.
https://avitamedical.com/about-recell-us
U.S. Food & Drug Administration. (2018). RECELL autologous cell harvesting
device.          https://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/BloodBloodProducts/ApprovedProducts/PremarketApprovalsPMAs/ucm621291.htm