# Reuse of Skin

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reuse-of-skin/608455>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 5, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reuse-of-skin/608455 "2012-01-05T02:26:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reuse-of-skin/608455/1 "2012-01-05T02:26:03Z")

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After massive weight loss (of whatever cause), it is often a good idea of having extra flabs of skin removed. (If you don’t you can get rashes and nasty stuff.)

So what do they do with the skin thus harvested? Can if be used to help people with bad burns and so on?

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**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reuse-of-skin/608455/2 "2012-01-05T03:15:57Z")

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I’ve heard that the skin removed in “adjustments following a big weight loss” is simply discarded. It’s often marred with stretch marks, and it does not have normal elasticity.

Perhaps somebody medical can chime it.  
~VOW

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**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reuse-of-skin/608455/3 "2012-01-05T09:49:19Z")

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Yup. It’s not the sort of skin anybody’d want to have to use. My surgeon said it had lost elasticity and was essentially ‘played out.’ Plus; not pretty most of the time.

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**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reuse-of-skin/608455/4 "2012-01-05T17:03:37Z")

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I imagine that organ rejection would be a problem in transferring skin.

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**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reuse-of-skin/608455/5 "2012-01-05T17:28:40Z")

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I think a good portion of transplanted skin is used for skin grafts, to cover burns. It is just a temporary cover, until the body can heal enough to generate its own skin.

Donor skin is also used for _ahem_ male augmentation plastic surgery.  
~VOW