Augusta burn center is first ever to use new skin cell technology

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The JMS Burn Center is the first in the world to use a new regenerating skin cell technology to help burn and wound patients.

When wounds don’t close on their own, doctors usually use a skin graft to close them. It’s a piece from a patient’s body that is not affected by a burn.

RECELL GO uses technology that allows doctors to spray your own healthy skin cells on your wound or on top of an expanded skin graft.

The system is designed to treat burns and full-thickness wounds.

The technology sets itself apart from past methods by using less of a patient’s own skin cells and automating the process, and improving efficiency in the operating room.

This gives doctors more time to focus on patient care.

It also uses a significantly less amount of donor skin, resulting in less pain for patients.

Patients experience two times greater healing with RECELL GO, along with less scarring.

All of this means less time spent in the hospital.

“What we want to do is just be able to provide the best care to our patients, and take them from something that can be sometimes devastating to bring in a patient not only through the burn but bringing it back and having a good quality of life,” said Dr. Shawn Fagan, JMS Chief Medical Officer.

He also says this can be used for any type of wound or burn, regardless of size.

“We care for a large amount of smaller burns, and smaller burns are just as important as the larger burns in terms of attaining closure and controlling that discomfort afterward,” said Fagan.

The technology will be used daily. The first procedure was done on May 31, and 11 procedures have been done since then, helping heal seven patients overall.

Dr. Nraj Doshi, the principal inventor of RECELL GO, hopes to see this technology implemented across the country.

“The whole point of us developing so that it’s automated, is the fact that it becomes a lot easier to adopt across hospitals in the U.S,” said Doshi.

Initial concepts for the system began just three years ago. Now, the JMS Burn Center has 16 units.

Each unit can be used up to 200 times, helping hundreds of patients right here in the CSRA.

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