# Doctor boasts of new "skin gun"



## 281mustang (Feb 2, 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXO_ApjKPaI&feature=player_embedded

I find it very odd that they don't have any before/after photos to present out of the dozen field tests they've completed but it seems very cool nonetheless. This could possibly be a major breakthrough, time will tell.


----------



## abckidsmom (Feb 2, 2011)

That's pretty cool.  I can imagine that they are sitting on the before and after stuff until it's ready for marketing.


----------



## Chimpie (Feb 2, 2011)

This is iRobot-cool!


----------



## adamjh3 (Feb 2, 2011)

*Spray-on Skin Gun*



> The skin gun is not science fiction—it's a prototype medical device that literally sprays skin cells onto burn victims to re-grow skin. Old methods like skin grafts took weeks to heal; the skin gun needs about an hour.



Link to story

Video of it in action

This is pretty amazing. Hard to think that in a couple decades this might be compacted down for field use.


----------



## Melclin (Feb 3, 2011)

I guess after the surgical debridement and sampling/growing of skin cells, the burns doctors could call us back in to spray the skin on.


----------



## Aidey (Feb 3, 2011)

I agree, I don't ever see this being a field tool. Burns require too much care and cleaning before healing for good.


----------



## Chimpie (Feb 3, 2011)

threads merged


----------



## adamjh3 (Feb 3, 2011)

Melclin said:


> I guess after the surgical debridement and sampling/growing of skin cells, the burns doctors could call us back in to spray the skin on.



Look at what was used in EMS 20 years ago and look at what we use now. Technology is moving so quickly, who knows if in 20 or 50 years we'll have the tech and education to debride, and the skin cells would be able to grow much quicker than the hour it takes now. 

I was just thinking aloud.


----------



## abckidsmom (Feb 3, 2011)

adamjh3 said:


> Look at what was used in EMS 20 years ago and look at what we use now. Technology is moving so quickly, who knows if in 20 or 50 years we'll have the tech and education to debride, and the skin cells would be able to grow much quicker than the hour it takes now.
> 
> I was just thinking aloud.



Show me an ambulance clean enough and warm enough to do burn care, and I might believe in this.  This is a remarkable tool that's probably so expensive it's not even going to be in every burn center, much less a random ambulance.


----------



## adamjh3 (Feb 3, 2011)

abckidsmom said:


> Show me an ambulance clean enough and warm enough to do burn care, and I might believe in this.  *This is a remarkable tool that's probably so expensive it's not even going to be in every burn center, much less a random ambulance*.



Right now, yes. 

It's impossible to argue the future, though.


----------



## Melclin (Feb 3, 2011)

adamjh3 said:


> Look at what was used in EMS 20 years ago and look at what we use now. Technology is moving so quickly, who knows if in 20 or 50 years we'll have the tech and education to debride, and the skin cells would be able to grow much quicker than the hour it takes now.



I doubt it..still, failure of imagination when predicting the future is a good way to be wrong. h34r:



> I was just thinking aloud.



I was just taking the piss mate


----------



## adamjh3 (Feb 3, 2011)

Melclin said:


> I doubt it..still, failure of imagination when predicting the future is a good way to be wrong. h34r:
> 
> 
> 
> I was just taking the piss mate



Yup, and according to Asimov we should all have robots and be eating only products made from yeast and have a united world government by now.


----------



## calebsheltonmed23 (Mar 11, 2011)

It's pretty cool, but a long way from being in EMS!


----------



## socalmedic (Mar 11, 2011)

lets remember that this is only for second degree burns, painfull but hardly disfiguring. lets see in the next few years if we can get this into the third degree burn area.


----------



## EMSDude54343 (Mar 12, 2011)

i agree with socal, plus who knows what the future will bring, when my dad took medic school he was barely alowed to do what a basic is taught to do now. 
this is an awesome tool, but would like to see more before and after, and what the long term affects are. and if they can do this with skin, i wonder where else they may be able to take this? spinal cord inj's or even brain tissue???


----------

