Tissue bank needs more amniotic membranes, which are used for eye reconstructions

The Aragon Blood and Tissue Bank needs more fragments of amniotic membrane, from the placenta of women who have just given birth, to carry out small transplants and eye reconstructions. The entity, as confirmed by the technical director, María José Martínez, has exhausted its stock and now has to collect more material from the hospitals.

«We normally collect a couple of them a year, because a lot of fabrics are obtained. The last time was in 2019 and, since then, we had not needed more,” explains Martínez. The condition to be able to obtain these placentas is that they be delivered by scheduled cesarean section. "This prevents us from contamination and, that way, we also know what day we have to go," he says.

Nor can they be cesarean sections with complications or come from mothers who, in times of pandemic, have been infected. In these cases there is no doubt because right now every mother who is going to give birth undergoes a PCR test first.

The tissues are processed into circular fragments 4,5 centimeters in diameter, which are frozen. The cells that grow on these membranes help revitalize the eye damage for which they are used. «They are small defects or corneal ulcers that do not heal. This tissue acts as a dressing, so that it heals," explains Martínez. There are other communities, according to him, that also use these fragments of the placenta for burns.

The number of interventions due to the pandemic decreases

In 2019, material was derived from the Aragonese bank for 45 interventions, while in 2020 they dropped to 24 due to the pandemic. «The average is usually about 40 fragments used per year. We work with a lot of foresight, that's why we need to have stock and every Thursday I call the hospitals, because the moment they call us, we go there," he highlights.

Any citizen, big or small, can be a recipient of this membrane. Both he and the donor must sign a consent form. «We know that mothers have no problems with this donation. As for the person who receives it, the advantage of this tissue is that it does not produce any type of rejection, unless the doctor who performs the intervention does not consider it appropriate for the type of patient," he says. The treatment has an established traceability process where everything is recorded in the computer system "in case there is a problem," says Martínez.

One of the Aragonese mothers who had no impediment in giving up her placenta was Pilar Sánchez, who participated in this action in 2018. «The day I entered they offered it to me and I didn't think about it. It seemed good to me because if I could help and if it was useful for something, great," she says. When a few days passed, the Aragón Blood and Tissue Bank sent her a letter thanking her for her gesture and explaining what the material could be used for. "I had no idea that it was used for eye damage," says Sánchez, who gave birth at the Clinic.