Australian man treated using new skin regenerative medical technology: report

A 33-year-old Australian man who suffered 95 percent burn injuries has become the world's first patient to receive treatment through cultured skin technique, under which the doctors grow skin in a laboratory and later use it to repair the wounds, a media report said on Friday. Glenn Ogg, who hails from Adelaide, was injured in a house fire in December last year and suffered horrific burns, the ABC News reported.

As part of the medical procedure, Ogg's treatment involved two cutting edge technologies, both of which were developed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital by the institution's burns unit director John Greenwood. The first procedure known as Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (BTM) is a skin dermal replacement and involved immediately removing Ogg's deep burns, 85 per cent of his total body surface area, and then applying the treatment, the report said.

The second technology was the process of growing the so-called "composite cultured skin" in the laboratory that took about five weeks. For the skin growth, a graft was taken from Ogg's scalp to create 26 pieces and once the cultured skin was ready in mid-January, Ogg began undergoing surgeries to completely close his burn wounds.

"BTM works by not only holding the burn wounds in a healthy condition but improving them for the five weeks it takes to grow and was pivotal in the early survival and progress of the healing of Glenn's wounds," Greenwood was quoted as saying in the report. He said there was a significant improvement in Ogg's health condition following the surgery.

"Every aspect of how these two technologies work together has seen Glenn not only survive but make a remarkable recovery in less than six months," he said. Following Ogg’s treatment, a clinical trial of the cultured skin technique has been approved and will begin at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the report said.

Speaking on the success of his treatment, Ogg said he felt special to be the first patient being treated using the new technology. "I feel lucky and 'a bit important' being the first person to be treated with the new techniques," Ogg was quoted as saying in the report.

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