SUFFOLK -- A therapy center in Suffolk is having success treating stubborn open wounds with a living skin patch.

The patch, part of a whole new field of tissue engineering, has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of diabetics, burn patients and people with damaged veins in their legs.

Laren Hesson has an open sore on his leg that has been there since he was injured in the service years ago. Nothing has completely healed it, from his own skin graft early on to therapy in 2006. It resembles a bed sore, similar to the kind diabetics get.

“It affects your life a lot,” he said. “Of course, I’m old and not that vain, but you know, I’d rather have it healed up and looking good than what I was going through.”

Therapy Concepts in Suffolk has recently been healing wounds with patches of live skin grown in the lab.

“Bioengineered,” added Greg Barrone, MPT, of Therapy Concepts. “Actually, grown in a dish and shipped overnight so we can put it on our patients; a living skin patch.”

The patch, grown from discarded foreskin cells, has a lower risk of rejection and kick starts the patient’s skin to re-grow.

“It acts like a scaffolding, a bridge, or a trellis when you grow a rose,” explained Barrone. “It gives those cells something to crawl on.”

Unlike having a skin graft, applying bioengineered skin does not involve anesthesia or surgery.

Many patients at Therapy Concepts have had complete success with the Apligraf artificial skin, a technique Hesson hopes will finally give him the chance to carry out simple, every day activities.

“I have a grandson I’m teaching,” he said. “I’ve got eight grandchildren, but I’ve got one that just loves fishing. This is gonna help me do some of those things, hopefully.”

According to clinical trials, the success rate for Apligraf is about 70%. In the six months that Therapy Concepts has been applying the patches, none have been rejected.