Antimicrobial Effect of Skin for Allograft and Management in Burn Wound

One of the most important functions of skins is to protect our bodies from microbes or pollutant sources. Skins containing physical substances serve as a physical barrier which protects our bodies from pathogens. A healthy skin contains a variety of antibacterial substances such as defensin, cathelicidin and psoriasin. However deep and wide burns cause the skin to lose its original functions, so our skins are exposed to various danger factors. For the burn patients, human alloskin graft serves as a very important temporary biological wound dressing. It protects the wound before autograft procedure, forms revascularization and granulation tissues and protects the wound from an invasion of microbes. This study was conducted with the aim to analyze the antimicrobial effect of cryopreserved allograft (CPA) and glycerol-preserved allograft (GPA) which was a type of allograft widely used for burn patients, and measure the difference in comparison with the fresh skin before processing it. The most common contaminants found in burn patients such as S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, C. albicans and E. coli, were used for experiment. The antimicrobial effect against S. aureus and E. coli was observed in fresh skin and some CPA. In some clinical cases, infection is frequently observed in the wounds treated with allograft, indicating the allograft completely block every kind of microbes. To prevent the infection, it is required to use antibiotics and manage wounds thoroughly.