(WCBD/NBC News) A man is recovering well after an Medical University of South Carolina Health team performed the first reported successful minimally invasive skin graft on a burn in the United States.
Tommy Porcha, 54, suffered deep second-degree burns over 17 percent of his body on July 26.
Typically, a traditional skin graft would have been needed, where a surgeon would take a portion of skin from the patient’s thighs and stretch it over the burns. Instead, Porcha was treated using an enzyme gel as part of a study the burn center is participating in.
In addition, MUSC Health regularly uses a regenerative technology that utilizes a skin cell spray rather than entire sheets of skin.
The combination of these two technologies allowed Dr. Steven Kahn, chief of burn surgery, to avoid a conventional skin graft and instead perform a more precise repair that should result in less scarring over the burned areas and more long-term mobility.
Porcha is healing far quicker than a burn victim normally would.
Read more: https://bit.ly/2QgQk4R
More from MyHighPlains.com:
- Amarillo High, Clarendon, Texline Advance to Regional Finals
- Historic Conneaut Lake Park will soon be owned by a new private company
- Canyon, Panhandle, Nazareth advance to State Semifinals
- Rep. Ronny Jackson responds to Department of Defense inspection report anticipated to be released Wednesday
- St. Andrew’s Episcopal School students celebrate Texas Independence Day
