The use of amniotic membrane as a biological dressing is proving to be extremely effective for the fast recovery of patients at Surya Hospital, the single largest centre in the city catering to burns patients, ever since this technique began being implemented from February this year. The only hitch though lies is in procuring the placenta on a sustained basis.

“The human amniotic membrane has proved to be a useful biological dressing as it prevents loss of fluid and infections,” said Dr Jaisingh Shinde, managing director of Surya Hospital. The amniotic membrane has already been used as a biological dressing for nearly 50 patients.

Dr Shrirang Pandit, plastic surgeon at Poona Hospital, who has treated over 5,000 burns patients, agrees that placentas are not easily available and it needs several permissions to procure something that otherwise becomes part of bio-medical waste. Burns specialists in the city are now tying up with private hospitals to procure the placentas.

Sujata Vaidya, head of the Sahyadri Hospital’s medical genetics and tissue engineering facility, said they had perfected the technique of cleaning the membrane to make it like a supple white coloured tissue that can be applied on the burns.

However, Vaidya is choosy on her selection of placentas and would rather opt for the one from a caesarean delivery than a vaginal delivery.

“We need the placenta without the vaginal flora. A check is also kept on the medical tests of pregnant women who come for a C-section so that infections like HIV and others can be ruled out. Only then the placenta is delivered straight from the womb into the autoclaved sterile containers. The membranes are then cleaned at the tissue engineering facility at Sahyadri’s laboratory and the tissue is then transferred to the burns specialists,” she said.

The summer months of March, April and May have always had a high share of patients being admitted for treatment for burns, a good percentage of them women. Of the 29 patients admitted in Surya Hospital in March, 17 were women. As many as eight of 15 admitted for burns in the hospital in April and 14 of 23 in May were women.