- What has been done before
- How tilapia skin is used
- What scientific evidence
- Other applications made
- What is missing for commercialization
Recently, doctors at the Municipal Hospital Souza Aguiar, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, started using the skin of tilapia fish in the treatment of people with wounds caused by burns and have already observed that in addition to being a low-cost treatment, tilapia skin improves the healing of wounds caused by burns and relieves pain at the site.
This technique started to be developed by researchers from the Federal University of Ceará to better understand the ways to sterilize the tilapia skin and then expanded the objectives and partnered with other research centers to verify the application of this specific skin in clinical practice.
In addition to the treatment of burns, tilapia skin has been applied in surgeries in women with a type of rare congenital disorder, which causes the person to be born without the vaginal canal. However, for tilapia skin to be used in all SUS hospitals and to be marketed, approval by the National Health Surveillance Agency is still required.
What has been done before
The Nile tilapia fish, popularly known as tilapia and with the scientific name of Oreochromis niloticus, is of African origin, but widely found in rivers in several regions of Brazil, such as Ceará, for example. Because of this, in 2014 some researchers from the Federal University of Ceará began to study the properties of the skin of this fish and found that it is resistant, elastic and rich in collagen, having levels twice as high as the collagen found in human skin.
However, before starting to be used in people, a study was carried out to discover the best ways to sterilize tilapia skin, as this type of material can contain microorganisms that could cause infections and diseases.
In this way, the researchers submitted the tilapia skin to different sterilization methods and came to the conclusion that dehydration under low temperatures and radiation does not alter the structures of the tilapia skin and therefore established a protocol based on these methods to make the strict disinfection of tilapia skin and maintain safety and effectiveness for application in clinical practice.
How tilapia skin is used
After undergoing disinfection processes, the tilapia skin is vacuum-packed and sent to hospitals, including the Souza Aguiar Municipal Hospital, in Rio de Janeiro. At the Burn Treatment Center of this hospital, the packages with the tilapia skin blades are opened, hydrated with water and then applied directly to the burn, with no need for the use of ointments or any other product.
Tilapia skin acts directly on a person's burn, which may have been caused by accidents at work with electricity or by domestic accidents with fire, shortening the healing time, relieving local pain more quickly, and reducing the risks of infection, prevent fluid loss in the lesion and over the course of the day it will be undone, and the dressing should be changed every ten days.
What scientific evidence
Several studies are being carried out to understand which is the most efficient and cheapest treatment for burns, and this was one of the reasons why researchers at the Federal University of Ceará of the Research and Development in Medicines Center started in 2015 research involving tilapia skin. After that, other research centers in Brazil and other countries, such as the United States, Germany, Holland, Colombia and Mexico, closed collaboration for research on tilapia skin.
As a result of this research, scholars have proven that tilapia skin is a biological material very similar to human skin, has high amounts of collagen and therefore can be used as a dressing in burns.
In addition, in practice it was possible to verify that the tilapia skin formed a barrier against infections, reduced secretion and allowed the burn wound to close more quickly without causing rejection of the person's skin.
Other applications made
Tilapia skin has also been used in a type of surgery, called neovaginoplasty, in women with a rare congenital disorder that causes women to be born without the vaginal canal. In this technique, doctors place a material to reconstruct the female intimate part and apply the tilapia skin to help in the formation of vaginal tissue and improve healing.
This surgery has not yet been applied by several doctors, it is being tested only on women attended at the Child and Adolescent Health Unit of the Maternity School Assis Cheteaubriand (MEAC) of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), however, some successful results have been pointed out by the medical team, showing that tilapia skin can also be useful for this type of treatment.
What is missing for commercialization
Currently, processes are being processed at the Ministry of Health for the use of tilapia skin to be released throughout the SUS, however, for this to happen, the material must be approved by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). Anvisa has not yet publicly reported on the progress of the regularization of this product and, for this reason, researchers do not know when the treated tilapia skin can be commercialized.
Watch a video with tips on what to do in cases of burn:
