Baby with severe burn victims is treated using cultured skin cells for the first time

For the first time in the Netherlands, a baby with severe burn wounds was treated with cultured skin cells that were based on a healthy piece of the child’s skin. Doctors at the Burn Victim Centre of the Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam performed the operation.

“The crib was too close to a hot frying pan, and the pan tipped over on the baby. The chance of survival when the child arrived here was very minimal,” Kees van der Vries, the head of the department, told AD. “We received early permission to use a technique that we are still researching, especially for this patient. With the help of stem cells, we can create our own cultured skin. In cases like this, that is a godsend because the baby had almost no healthy skin left to transplant. That would have made healing virtually impossible.”

Excluding scientific research, this was the first time that a patient this young has been treated with the new method called DenovoSkin. The Maasstad Ziekenhuis had performed clinical tests on the new medical technology. They did this in collaboration with the Swiss biotech company CUTISS and research center Wyss Zurich.

By treating burn wounds with someone’s own cultured skin the chances of the body rejecting the treatment are minimal. The transplant method also "provides faster healing and significantly less scarring," the hospital lists among the benefits.

By growing skin cells, a lot more cells can be made. The baby in question had burned 70 percent of the body surface. The operation on the child was successful.

“Thanks to this technique, the young patient is currently stable. But only after a while can we say whether the procedure was completely successful. A case like this stays with you for the rest of your life."