Background and objective

Burn units in Colombia, as in the rest of the world, have been a need to provide temporary and definitive skin coverage to burn patients.

Our aim is to get a brief review about the history of skin coverage, the creation of skin banks, mainly in Latinamerica and Colombia, their importance and their future.

Methods

We conduct a bibliographic review of skin coverings, creation and current existence of tissue banks in the world and sent a survey to get knowledge about the theme to the directors of Latinamerican laminar tissue banks.

Results

Need of skin coverage for trauma injuries has always existed, with different autologous and heterologous alternatives. With the emergence of infectious diseases such as AIDS, the need to offer quality and safe tissues was born, and this triggered the creation of tissue banks that produced the transitory biological dressings. Increase in the survival of patients with extensive and deep burns created the challenge of offering definitive coverage to reduce the scars and sequels of the burned patient. So far, there is no evidence pointing out which are the best alternatives.

Conclusions

Tissue banks continue to be valid due to the usefulness of their transient biological products and permanent dermal substitutes that are constantly improving. There is no evidence yet of a product fulfilling all requirements and tissue banks research is still a work in progress. Multicenter studies are required to compare existing ones in order to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each new developed tissue.

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