Tamil Nadu has set up the region’s first ‘biomaterial centre’ in the government sector, a facility that is capable of storing skin, bones, cartilage and heart valves among other biomaterials, at the Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMC). The facility, set up under the aegis of the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) and funded by the Central government to the tune of ₹1 crore, is to start a full-fledged skin bank but could store other biomaterials in the future.
Speaking at the inauguration of the facility on Wednesday, Vimal Bhandari, director NOTTO, said, “We are now in the process of formulating guidelines and standard operating procedures at the national level for the distribution of biomaterials.”
Praising the State Health Department for its proactive role in promoting and facilitating organ transplants, Dr. Bhandari urged the government to bring in other biomaterials within the ambit of the centre.
He also extended support to set up similar facilities at Tirunelveli and Madurai.
Skin donation
S. Raja Sabapathy, chairman, department of plastic surgery at Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore said the advantages of skin donation were that anybody could donate without the need for matching and they could be stored for up to five years and transported anywhere.
State Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar spoke about how skin donation could help — to treat victims of major burn injuries, where a cadaver skin graft is applied as a temporary cover on burns and is used to alleviate pain and improve the general condition of the patient. He said the centre would start dealing with other biomaterials too soon.
KMC is the State’s nodal centre for the treatment of burn injuries and the Burn Centre at the hospital, with 70 beds, is a Centre of Excellence.
Among the equipment at the centre were an incubator, a bio-safety cabinet, a centrifuge, an orbital shaker and a walk-in refrigerator.
Hand transplants
Mr. Vijaya Baskar also spoke about hand transplants — he said a team was ready for this at the Government Stanley Hospital and that patients too were waiting, but it was difficult to get donations. He said the department was working on creating more awareness about organ donations.
V. Ramadevi, head of plastic surgery at Stanley, said a prosthetic hand would be given for the donor of a hand, but still not many families came forward to donate.
Tamil Nadu has a skin bank functioning at the Government Stanley Hospital as well, opened in 2016.
State Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan; member secretary, Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu, P. Balaji; Director of Medical Education Narayana Babu and dean of KMC P. Vasanthamani participated.
The inauguration was followed by a Regional Organ Tissue Transplant Organisation meeting with the State transplant director of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
