Hopefully this new process's product can help alleviate some of the issues faced by burn victims.
When I was a small child I was run over by a car and severely burned (by the catalytic converter). I had to have multiple skin grafts, one fairly large.
At the time (1987), a temporary measure was to graft pig's skin over the burn. This is apparently still done today, but this new process's product (and others) could conceivably be used instead.
After the temporary graft I got autografts, which involves cutting skin off an un-burned area and applying it to a burned area. This was pretty painful†, and I wound up with a bad infection on the donor site.
The grafts have been fine ever since, but they're pretty unsightly (thankfully my clothes cover them). I also have the scar from the donor site (worsened by the infection). The artificial skin produced by these new printers will hopefully prevent some of these issues.
†I have memories of hurting from this, but I was only 1.5 years old, so I'm not sure if they're really memories or interpolations of things I've been told.
When I was a small child I was run over by a car and severely burned (by the catalytic converter). I had to have multiple skin grafts, one fairly large.
At the time (1987), a temporary measure was to graft pig's skin over the burn. This is apparently still done today, but this new process's product (and others) could conceivably be used instead.
After the temporary graft I got autografts, which involves cutting skin off an un-burned area and applying it to a burned area. This was pretty painful†, and I wound up with a bad infection on the donor site.
The grafts have been fine ever since, but they're pretty unsightly (thankfully my clothes cover them). I also have the scar from the donor site (worsened by the infection). The artificial skin produced by these new printers will hopefully prevent some of these issues.
†I have memories of hurting from this, but I was only 1.5 years old, so I'm not sure if they're really memories or interpolations of things I've been told.