Tilapia skin used to heal burns

Brazilian doctors are testing a new treatment for second-degree burns: Tilapia skin, applied directly to damaged tissue. The study, carried out on fifty patients, seems to indicate beneficial effects on pain and healing time.

In Brazil, fish may soon be commonly used to treat people suffering from second-degree burns. Dr. Edmar Maciel, a specialist in plastic surgery and repair at the José Frota Institute in Fortaleza, Brazil, is currently conducting a preliminary clinical study of about 50 people. The aim is to evaluate whether the application of Tilapia skin in the form of patches is effective for the healing of skin lesions following a burn.

Although the results are not yet published, the Brazilian doctor says in an interview with Dailymail that these fish skins provide a soothing and healing effect on the injuries caused by burns.

Effective for second degree burns

"This is a transient biological blanket," says Dr. Eric Dantzer, a plastic surgeon at the service of the burnt patients at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne in Toulon, to protect the lesion from contact with the air. Thus less painful for the patient, and this biological dressing prevents the lesion from drying, which promotes healing.

While this technique appears to be effective for second degree burns, it can not be used for third degree burns. The latter must in fact resort to "surgery and autografting", that is to say a graft performed from a collection of their own tissues - usually from the skin of the scalp.

Different degrees of burning

When only the epidermis, that is to say the upper layer of the skin, is touched, we speak of first-degree burn. Although painful, these lesions are not serious.

When the layer below the epidermis, called the dermis, is reached, it is a second-degree burn. Depending on the thickness of damaged dermal tissue, these burns are referred to as superficial or deep.

In the case of a third-degree burn, all the layers of the skin are affected: the epidermis, the dermis, but also the hypodermis. These very serious lesions induce necrosis of the tissues and destruction of the nerve endings and blood vessels. They require surgical management.

---

                                  thanks for reading!