Before I met her, one of my friends had lap band surgery, and at a meetup last Tuesday, she announced that she is now half the woman she used to be. Unfortunately, the weight loss left her with abdominal pannus that is estimated to weigh over 40 pounds, and she’s going to have it removed in a few weeks. The plastic surgeon asked her what she wanted done with the skin, and she said, “What are my options?” One of them was donation to the burn unit, which this hospital does have, and she said, “You bet! I won’t need that skin any more, so if I can donate it, do it!”
I knew they sometimes did that with newborn foreskins, which in culture soon expand to about the size of a sheet of notebook paper; I did not know they used live skin donors. Whatever they end up doing with it, she’s grateful she can help other people at the same time.
It appears that after pathology is finished examining it, if it (if you will) passes inspection, the subcutaneous tissue will be removed, and the skin may be used either fresh or frozen. Rejection isn’t an issue because it’s simply going to be used to cover a denuded area, whether from a burn, bedsore, or other issue where a person has an open area, and their own skin will eventually grow back.
I knew that losing large amounts of weight leaves you with excess skin, but it hadn’t occurred to me that you could donate it. In biology classes they teach that the skin is the largest organ in the body, so I guess this just falls under the category of organ donation.
I’ve seen it on other surgical TV programs. She had her hip replaced about a year ago, and bounced back incredibly fast from that and doesn’t seem to realize that this operation is going to be MUCH more intense and painful than that, or for that matter the lap band procedure. OTOH, maybe it will be like the hip replacement in that the procedure was less painful than the condition it was relieving.
Update on my friend: This surgery has been delayed indefinitely because she has been diagnosed with uterine cancer. She did ask if she could have the skin surgery concurrently with the hysterectomy she will have after a few chemo treatments, and they said it couldn’t be done.
When I was in my protein fast weight loss group/program about 13 years ago, we had a visit from a plastic surgeon who specialized in that kind of surgery. For those with enough weight loss that they had excess skin all around their torso, he said the only way to get rid of the excess skin was to make an incision all the way around the body, as I remember this would be somewhere in the ribcage area, and lift everything up, cut off the excess, and suture the two halves together again. He said this would leave a very visible scar around your body, which would never go away. He showed slides. I decided to not even think about doing that surgery, even after I became about 60% of the person I had been. Anyway, I gained most of the weight back in the past 8 years so it became moot. I do not remember that he mentioned donating the skin, although it is a long time ago and is not the main point that I came away with.
It also would have required separate surgeries for the upper body area - moob or boob lift, turkey wings, and neck, for the most common examples.
A friend of mine had gastric surgery last fall and has lost more than my weight since. She’s looking into the excess skin removal surgery now and we’ve talked about this, even the possibility of burn victim skin donation.
There is an SF booked called by Marrow by Robert Reed that takes place in a distant future where people have been extensively modified from baseline humans, basically everything from the genetic system up to be as near unkillable and immortal as they can make themselves while still looking/feeling human. A group of them become trapped on a very inhospitable planet. To make clothing, they cut off their own skin (which they survive easily and regenerate quickly) and make it into leather. If I was having excess skin removed, it wouldn’t be enough for a me jacket, but maybe enough for a nice pair of me gloves?
Unfortunately, the weight loss left her with abdominal pannus that is estimated to weigh over 40 pounds, and she’s going to have it removed in a few weeks. The plastic surgeon asked her what she wanted done with the skin, and she said, “What are my options?” One of them was donation to the burn unit, which this hospital does have, and she said, “You bet! I won’t need that skin any more, so if I can donate it, do it!”
She did ask if she could have the skin surgery concurrently with the hysterectomy she will have after a few chemo treatments, and they said it couldn’t be done.