JEDDAH, 23 June 2004 — A diabetic septuagenarian has fully recovered from a rare live skin graft at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center. The hospital said the 70-year-old had suffered for years from diabetic foot ulcer.
The foot and ankle surgeon who performed the operation six weeks ago, Dr. Khalid Edrees, said the patient has recovered completely. “He is able to walk again on his foot, but more importantly the ulcer is healed,” he said.
He explained that transplanting skin from another person carries the risk of rejection by the patient, and transplanting skin from the same patient would mean taking skin from another part of the body and causing a large skin defect. However, in live skin grafts, “skin is grown in a laboratory in a special way: it is cultured skin,” Dr. Edrees told Arab News. The way the skin is grown means the patient will not reject it.
“The worst that could happen is that the skin does not adhere to the wound,” Dr. Edrees said. The skin was transported frozen from a US laboratory.
The operation itself only took an hour and was relatively simple, he said. However, it was done for the first time in the Middle East because the technology involved has only recently become available here.
With the growing number of diabetics in Saudi Arabia, diabetic foot ulcer is a common and serious problem which can result in amputation. This procedure is also useful in treating large burns, Dr. Edrees added.
