Doctors use skin of tilapia fish to treat burn victims in Brazil!

Fortaleza: Brazilian doctors are experimenting with a new therapy to treat severe burns by using the skin of tilapia fish as a bandage for second- and third-degree burns.

Researchers said the new treatment is an unorthodox procedure which can ease the pain of victims and also cut medical costs.

Animal skin has been used for the treatment of severe burns in developed countries as it helps to keep them moist and allow the transfer of collagen, a protein that promotes healing.. But Brazil's public hospitals lack human and pig skin supplies and the artificial alternatives that are easily available in Western countries.

Instead, gauze bandage, which needs regular changing - often painfully - is the norm.

Tilapia is found abundantly in Brazil's rivers and fish farms, which are expanding rapidly as demand grows for the mildly flavored freshwater fish.

Researchers 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.

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.

"The use of tilapia skin on burns is unprecedented," said Odorico de Morais, a professor at Ceara University.

Morais added, "The fish skin is usually thrown away, so we are using this product to convert it into something of social benefit."

Brazilian researchers have said that the tilapia treatment can speed up healing by several days and reduces the need for pain medication.

University lab technicians treated the fish skin with various sterilizing agents, and sent it to Sao Paulo for irradiation to kill viruses before packaging and refrigeration. Once cleaned and treated, it can last for up to two years, researchers say. The treatment removes any fish smell.

In medical trials, the alternative therapy has been used on at least 56 patients to treat second- and third-degree burns. Patients, with limbs covered by fish skin, resemble creatures from a science fiction movie.

Car mechanic Antonio Janio badly burned his arm when a cylinder of soldering gas leaked. He says the tilapia skin treatment is more effective than bandages that need to be changed every two days.

The fish skin has high levels of collagen type 1, stays moist longer than gauze, and does not need to be changed frequently.

The tilapia skin is applied directly onto the burned area and covered with a bandage, without the need for any cream. After about 10 days, doctors remove the bandage. The tilapia skin, which has dried out and loosened from the burn, can be peeled away.

"Use the tilapia skin. It's excellent," Janio said. "It takes the pain away. You do not need to take medicine. In my case, I did not need it, thank God."

Morais said that the tilapia skin treatment costs 75 percent less than the sulfadiazine cream typically used on burn patients in Brazil, as it is a cheap fish-farming waste product.

The researchers hope the treatment will prove commercially viable and encourage businesses to process tilapia skin for medical use.

(With Agency inputs)