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'Truly remarkable!' Surgeons break down how a placenta restored a woman’s face after severe burns

MDlinx Nov 07, 2024

A woman in Georgia who endured severe facial burns due to an explosion has undergone a complete restoration to her former appearance. The secret ingredient? Human placenta.

 

The New York Times reports that in a rarely used technique, surgeons applied human placenta directly to her face in a thin layer, which allowed her facial burns to heal unprecedentedly well.

Morgan K. Her face was unrecognizable after an explosion. A placenta restored it. The New York Times. October 11, 2024.

 

But experts say a number of factors likely contributed to how well the woman’s face healed.

“The outcome of the burn was truly remarkable," Bohdan Pomahac, MD, ASPS Member Surgeon and Chief of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Yale School of Medicine, tells MDLinx. "Placenta has been around for quite a while in different reiterations as a burn dressing, and it has a lot of benefits. It provides growth factors and anti-inflammatory properties. It provides some extracellular matrix. It provides a more closed environment where infection is less common."

“But I do think that in this setting, the ultimate outcome is more an outcome of, or function of, the depth of the burn, rather than miraculous placenta," Dr. Pomohac continues, noting that luck and the fact that the injuries were less severe (as second-degree burns) were pivotal in such a positive outcome.

 

An uncommon treatment

 

While the woman in Georgia received treatment with placenta, it is not a technique that is typically utilized in the United States.

Morgan K. Her face was unrecognizable after an explosion. A placenta restored it. The New York Times. October 11, 2024.

 

As Haig Yenikomshian, MD, plastic surgeon with Keck Medicine of USC, tells MDLinx, “It's not very common right now. It's prohibitively expensive, especially if you have a very large burn where someone has maybe 50% of their body burnt. That would be very, very expensive. As far as the studies, we don't have enough data to confidently tell our patients and families that this is the treatment of choice, [and] we need more studies before we can confidently say that this is the best option."

 

What we need to do is conduct randomized, controlled studies to really understand how this works and if it's better than what we're doing right now.

 

'Off-label' use

 

Currently, any use of placenta for wound or burn healing in the US is considered an “off-label” use, according to the experts we spoke with.

Tina Louise Palmieri, MD, FACS, MCCM, Burn Division Chief at UC Davis, says it is not without risk. “The placenta is one of many wound dressings that falls into the “biological” category. There are not randomized trials to either support or refute its use. Like all biologics, it carries the risk of disease transmission, so application needs to be thought through carefully. Not sure if it is a good idea. Just not enough evidence to support it,” she tells MDLinx.

She acknowledges, though, that “the placenta can create and help maintain a moist environment, which in theory could facilitate wound healing. There may be other substances, such as growth factors, in the placenta which, again in theory, may be helpful.”

 

Looking ahead

 

If the appropriate studies prove placenta is effective, Dr. Yenikomshian says it has the potential to help a lot of people. “If we could find a product to help with wound healing and scarring, to help minimize scars, and if placenta is helpful for that, it could really benefit a lot of patients and burn survivors,” he said.

“I think that in 5 to 10 years, not just placenta, but other products, are going to come on the market, which are really going to help with wound healing and scarring," Dr. Yenikomshian says.

What this means for you

A woman in Georgia experienced severe burns to her face after an explosion. In a rarely utilized technique, her surgeons applied a thin layer of human placenta to her face. She now looks the same as she did before the burns. Experts say the placenta application is an interesting idea, but the favorable outcome may have been partly due to the modest depth of the burn, as it was a superficial second-degree burn. Use of placenta for burns in the US is currently off-label, and experts say more studies are needed to confirm efficacy.

 

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