Surprising Discovery

The skin of tilapia fish could potentially be used to bandage burns.

Doctors in Fortaleza, Brazil are testing the skin of a popular fish as a bandage for second-and third-degree burns. This innovation arose from an unmet need, as Brazil lacks the human skin, pig skin, and artificial alternatives that are widely available in countries like the US. 

In addition, the three functional skin banks in Brazil can only meet 1% of the national demand, said Dr Edmar Maciel, a plastic surgeon and burn specialist leading the clinical trials with tilapia skin. As a result, public health patients in Brazil are normally bandaged with gauze and silver sulfadiazine cream. 

“It’s a burn cream because there’s silver in it, so it prevents the burns from being infected,” said Dr Jeanne Lee, interim burn director at the regional burn center at the University of California in San Diego. “But it doesn’t help in terms of debriding a burn or necessarily helping it heal.”