Avita's 'spray-on skin' proven to significantly reduce need for donor skin

Latest results from Avita Medical’s spray-on skin trials show the treatment significantly reduced donor skin requirements and pain.

The results were presented to the American Burn Association Annual Meeting this week, demonstrating the effectiveness and clinical benefits of the RECELL Autologous Cell Harvesting Device in the treatment of second-degree burns.

Its RECELL is used to help with skin growth after burns or chronic wounds and reduce the amount of skin harvested during surgery – and the latest figures show it’s reducing the donor skin required by 97.5 per cent compared to the current standard of care.

The trial of 101 adult patients compared two burn sites on each patient – one with the RECELL device and one with the standard treatment.

Further to the reduction in donor skin required, RECELL reported increased donor-site healing, reduced pain and increased patient satisfaction.

Avita Medical (AVH) shares over the past three months.

Shares in the company were trading up as 5 per cent in early trade, settling up 3 per cent at 5.9c.

Adressing the meeting, Arizona Burn Centre MD Dr Kevin Foster presented results that RECELL could reduce total treatment costs by 44 per cent or greater for large burns.

“Management of severe burns is costly due to complex, individualized treatment, and the requirement for hospitalization and multiple procedures,” said Dr Foster.

“The model discussed today highlights the potential of the RECELL Device to improve patient care in the treatment of severe burns, while also providing a technique for reducing the total cost of treatment.”

ReCell is a small device – “probably the size of two fists put together” – that produces a spray-on skin material called a Regenerative Epithelial Suspension from a piece of real skin.

“What we do with ReCell is we take a normal area of skin, put it into the device at the patient’s bedside and within 30 minutes we end up with a version of spray-on skin,” Dr Perry told Stockhead last year.

Normally, patients with severe burns or wounds have to wait for skin to regrow from the edges inwards, which Dr Perry refers to as the ‘free edge’ effect. The options to overcome it are skin grafts and ReCell, or both together.