Medical Innovation

Dr. Robert Schulz, a director at the Straub Burn Center, is excited about the launch of the FDA-approved RECELL System. Straub is the first in the state to use the system, which improves the care for patients with acute thermal burn injuries (photo courtesy Straub Medical Center).

THROUGHOUT ITS CENTURY OF SERVING HAWAI‘I, STRAUB MEDICAL CENTER HAS BEEN THE HOME OF MANY MEDICAL “FIRSTS,” INCLUDING THE FIRST ARTHROSCOPIC KNEE SURGERY, FIRST MINIMALLY INVASIVE CORONARY BYPASS PROCEDURE AND THE FIRST LASER SURGERY FOR CATARACTS AND NEUROLOGICAL SURGERY.

Now, Straub Medical Center is home to another medical first. It has become the first in the state to use the FDA-approved RECELL® System to improve care for patients with acute thermal burn injuries.

The system, employed by Straub plastic surgeon, Dr. Robert Schulz, allows physicians to prepare Spray-On Skin cells using a small sample of the patient’s own skin. “This evolution in grafting allows us to spray patients’ own healthy skin cells on burn wounds,” Schulz explains. “The technology especially addresses patients with a large critical burn injury. For example, Straub’s treatment of a huge electrical burn injury.”

Currently, the treatment for patients with third-degree burns involves skin grafts, which is a painful process that can take weeks. It is particularly challenging in patients with large burns where there is very little healthy skin to use. Because the RECELL System uses a smaller skin sample, it is a welcome innovation in the field.

“A small, thin piece of shaved healthy skin is used, which means only a limited amount of donor skin is needed,” Schulz says. “For example, if an entire back is burned, only a very thin graft, the size of a credit card, is used. Because the donor skin is very thin, the donor site heals faster.”

“This technology helps reduce the length of hospital stay, donor site scar and pain,” he adds.

The system is found at major burn treatment centers. “It was even mentioned in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy,” Schulz says.

Schulz, who joined Straub in 1977 following residencies in general surgery at the University of Hawai‘i and plastic surgery at the prestigious Cronin-Brauer Clinic in Houston, Texas, is a director at the Straub Burn Center, the only multi-disciplinary burn treatment center in Hawai‘i and the Pacific Region.

Schulz points out “Straub is the only burn designated trauma facility for 2,000 miles and we are obligated and willing to treat all significant burn injuries.” This technology offers significant benefits for those patients. Additionally, it’s estimated that the system could help burn centers around the country potentially save millions of dollars per year by reducing costs associated with treatment for severe burns, such as length of hospital stays, number of autografting procedures and time in the operating room.

“Burn injuries are unique in so many ways,” Schulz says, expounding on why this innovation is crucial for patients. “Within 24 hours the physiologic changes brought on by the burned skin become potentially lethal. The bacterial barrier and thermoregulation is lost, toxic products from the burn lead to vascular changes that require very large amounts of IV fluid. If not provided medical attention, the blood pressure will drop to shock levels and kidney function will be lost. At that point, recovery from the burn injury becomes much more difficult.”

Schulz points out that severe burns are more common than people think, and treatment can be difficult and expensive. “We are excited to have this new technology available, and based on what we’ve seen of its use so far here and around the country, we’re very optimistic about the potential results it can provide for our patients.”

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