![]() ![]() For more severe burns, the tilapia skin is applied and then changed, but less frequently than gauze and cream and with greater benefit as tilapia helps alleviate pain.Įventually, the researchers hope to convince others of the benefits of tilapia skin for burn treatment so that it becomes commercially available. The cream helps burns from becoming infected but doesn’t promote healing.įor superficial second degree burns, the tilapia skin is applied and left on until the burn heals. Furthermore, tilapia skin speeds up the healing process by several days and is much more cost effective than silver sulfadiazine cream, which is commonly used to treat burns. According to researchers at the Federal University of Ceara, tilapia skin has similar moisture, collagen and disease resistance to human skin, which helps to accelerate healing in burn victims. In Brazil, fish farms are becoming more prevalent to meet the rising demand for fish. Tilapia fish skin helps with pain and is also a cost effective method of burn treatment, according to the doctors conducting the experiment. Taking gauze on and off is painful for patients and tilapia is plentiful in the South American country. But pig skin is hard to find in Brazil, which uses gauze to treat burns. Traditional burn treatment includes placing frozen pig skin on burns to replenish collagen and accelerate healing. Jeanne Lee, the interim burn director with the University of California at San Diego, told Stat News.Doctors in Brazil are using tilapia fish skin as an experimental treatment for burn victims. ![]() “I’m willing to use anything that might actually help a patient," Dr. Eventually, though, the practice could spread to other countries, including the US. Once the packaged skin is treated to sterilize it and kill off any viruses, it can be refrigerated and will keep for up for two years.įor now, the method is still in clinical trials, with 56 people receiving treatment with the skins already. That's in part because it's considered fish-farm waste. The tilapia skin is also relatively inexpensive, costing 75 cents less than traditional bandages per application. In my case, I did not need it, thank God." Car mechanic Antonio Janio used the treatment after getting a burn on his arm. Tilapia skin also appears to relieve some of the pain. Here, doctors wrap a child's burnt skin with tilapia skin. But in more extreme cases, the tilapia needs to be changed out, though not as frequently as the gauze-and-cream combination does. In some cases, the sterilized tilapia skin can be left on until the patient's skin starts to scar. Tilapia is a common fish found in Brazil's rivers and fish farms, which makes the skin readily accessible for the experimental treatment. Edmar Maciel, a burn specialist at the institute told Stat News. “We got a great surprise when we saw that the amount of collagen proteins, types 1 and 3, which are very important for scarring, exist in large quantities in tilapia skin, even more than in human skin and other skins,” Dr. When they analyzed the tilapia's skin, they found something unexpected. So the team looked for other options, including sterilized tilapia skin. But at the José Frota Institute, doctors were only able to use burn creams and gauze that had to be changed out frequently, a painful process. Using tissue can often help speed up the healing process. Second- and third-degree burns are painful, and occasionally deadly depending on how widespread they are on the body. Here's the story of how the team discovered this unconventional new approach. That shortage led researchers at the José Frota Institute to turn to tilapia as an alternative treatment for people in the community who suffered from burns. In Fortaleza, Brazil, however, those tissues weren't readily available. ![]() Traditionally, burns are treated using pig and human tissue, which transfer collagen, a healing protein, to the victims' skin. Here's how the team came to the unconventional approach.īrazillian doctors are taking an experimental approach to treating burns: using tilapia skin. ![]() A city in Brazil is using tilapia skin as an experimental approach to burn treatment. ![]()
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