Skin bank development and critical incident response

The Donor Tissue Bank of Victoria (DTBV), situated in Melbourne, Australia developed a skin banking program in 1994. It remains Australia’s only operational skin bank, processing cryopreserved human cadaveric skin for the treatment of burns. The demand for allograft skin in Australia has steadily increased since the development of the program. The bank has been involved in the provision of skin for a number of critical incidences or disasters both in Australia and overseas. Demand always exceeds supply, and in the absence of other local skin banks, the DTBV has needed to develop strategies to enable increased provision of allograft skin nationally.