The researchers hope the treatment will prove commercially viable and encourage businesses to process tilapia skin for medical use. Morais said that the tilapia skin treatment costs 75 per cent less than the sulfadiazine cream typically used on burn patients in Brazil, as it is a cheap fish-farming waste product. In my case, I did not need it, thank God." The tilapia skin, which has dried out and loosened from the burn, can be peeled away. After about 10 days, doctors remove the bandage. The tilapia skin is applied directly onto the burned area and covered with a bandage, without the need for any cream. The fish skin has high levels of collagen type 1, stays moist longer than gauze, and does not need to be changed frequently. He says the tilapia skin treatment is more effective than bandages that need to be changed every two days. Patients, with limbs covered by fish skin, resemble creatures from a science fiction movie.Ĭar mechanic Antonio Janio badly burned his arm when a cylinder of soldering gas leaked. In medical trials, the alternative therapy has been used on at least 56 patients to treat second- and third-degree burns. Once cleaned and treated, it can last for up to two years, researchers say. FORTALEZA, Brazil (Reuters) - Researchers in Brazil are experimenting with a new treatment for severe burns using the skin of tilapia fish. University lab technicians treated the fish skin with various sterilising agents, and sent it to Sao Paulo for irradiation to kill viruses before packaging and refrigeration. Brazilian doctors use fish skin to treat burn victims. The tilapia treatment can speed up healing by several days and reduces the need for pain medication, the Brazilian researchers say. "The fish skin is usually thrown away, so we are using this product to convert it into something of social benefit." "The use of tilapia skin on burns is unprecedented," said Odorico de Morais, a professor at Ceara University. In China, researchers have tested tilapia skin on rodents to study its healing properties, but scientists in Brazil say their trials are the first on humans. Scientists at the Federal University of Ceara in northern Brazil have found that tilapia skin has moisture, collagen and disease resistance at levels comparable to human skin, and can aid in healing. Tilapia is abundant in Brazil's rivers and fish farms, which are expanding rapidly as demand grows for the mildly flavored freshwater fish. Instead, gauze bandage, which needs regular changing - often painfully - is the norm. With tilapia, not only do these bandages accelerate wound-healing and reduce pain, but they are also stitched in place over the burn – meaning that they don’t require frequent changes.FORTALEZA, Brazil - Researchers in Brazil are experimenting with a new treatment for severe burns using the skin of tilapia fish, an unorthodox procedure they say can ease the pain of victims and cut medical costs.įrozen pig skin and even human tissue have long been placed on burns to keep them moist and allow the transfer of collagen, a protein that promotes healing.īrazil's public hospitals, however, lack human and pig skin supplies and the artificial alternatives easily available in Western countries. Two of the most pressing of these are how often you can handle the animal, and if it will interfere with its surgical site after you have finished. In addition to its medical properties, Dr Peyton also recognised that tilapia skin solved a number of problems unique to working with wild animals. Having heard about this unusual material after studying the work of doctors in Brazil, veterinarian Dr Jamie Peyton recognised the opportunity to help the mountain lion with this new technology. This last quality is due to the fact that the tilapia skin has been found to have up to five times more collagen than human skin that, when transferred to the burned skin, speeds the healing process. Sterilised tilapia skin has been recently recognised as an effective “biological band-aid” that provides three key benefits – mechanical protection due to the scales, a reduction in pain, and faster healing times. How can a fish help a mountain lion injured by fire? Well, amazingly, with its skin!Ī 5-month-old mountain lion with second and third degree burns on all four paw pads, resulting from the California bushfires, is being treated with a “bandage” first tried in Brazil: fish skin.
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