Burns patients in Queensland will soon be able to grow their own skin.

The world-leading treatment will be offered at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital which has opened the state’s first skin culture centre.

Ethan Gould reports.

TRANSCRIPT

Queensland’s biggest hospital treats about 450 badly burned patients a year.

They’ve had to rely on skin grafts from donors, but will soon be able to grow their own.

Cameron Dick, Queensland Minister for Health: “This sort of research and this work that’s been done at the skin culture centre will revolutionise how we treat burns victims in Queensland.”

Charlotte Adderly, Burns Victim: “It would mean the world for future burns patients because, like I said, it’s such a traumatic experience and it’s so painful, mentally and physically.”

The new centre will use a patient’s own cells to produce skin.

Dr. Michael Rudd, Director of Burns Centre: “It means short stays in the intensive care unit, ultimately it means closing their wounds quicker and keeping those seriously injured patients alive and rehabbing them quicker.”

With just a 50 cent sized piece of skin, researchers say they’ll be able to grow over 70 percent of a patients skin, in just three weeks.

For patients, it’s been a long time coming.

Charlotte Adderly, Burns Victim: “It’s been increasingly getting more innovative, increasingly getting better. Especially with the types of professors and doctors here at the Roayal, they’re always working on new strategies to help burns recovery.”

The centre will be fully operational next month.

Ethan Gould, QUT News.