IN BRAZIL, DOCTORS DISCOVER THAT TILAPIA FISH SKIN IS A GREAT TREATMENT FOR SEVERE BURNS
It’s always good to hear about the discovery of new medical treatments that seem to come out of nowhere. And, it’s even better when the discovery isn’t dependent on some kind of ultra expensive, exclusive new technology that almost no one can afford. But this discovery clearly could have been used long before now. In Brazil, the country only has a grand total of 3 skin banks to rely on to treat burn victims. And, well, those 3 are not enough, and altogether only meet about 1% of the nation’s demands for burn treatment. So some enterprising doctors in Fortaleza looked for an alternative, and found an incredibly effective treatment by using the skin of tilapia fish.
YOU LITERALLY PUT TILAPIA FISH SKIN DIRECTLY ONTO BURN WOUNDS, AND IT IS VERY EFFECTIVE
Yes, tilapia fish skin! They literally apply the skin to burn wounds, usually second and third degree burns. It goes on as a biological bandage, and is quite possibly more effective than what isn’t very available in Brazil’s skin banks. When doctors don’t have access to material from skin banks to use, they instead have to turn to traditional gauze and cream dressings. While those are better than nothing, they have to be changed every day which is a painful process. But tilapia fish skin sticks safely to burn wounds and can stay in place without changes for an extended time.
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TILAPIA SKIN COULD BE A BOON TO MUCH OF THE WORLD THAT CAN’T AFFORD SKIN BANKS
But then there’s how tilapia skin also has a lot of collagen types 1 and 3, which are really important when it comes to helping along the healing process of burns. In fact, tilapia skin has even more collagen than human skin does. It also provides greater tension covering burn wounds, and has better moisture retention. In other words, tilapia skin as a burn treatment accelerates healing by several days and reduces both pain and the need for pain medication. But of course they don’t just take the skin off tilapia fish and put it on burn wounds. First it’s sterilized, then irradiated to kill any possible viruses. Once it’s ready to use, it can be refrigerated for as long as 2 years and is still good to use.
Pretty impressive, especially as it’s cheaper and more available than skin banks for many countries, which now have a way to help people with bad burns.
