Nile Tilapia Fish Skin-Based Wound Dressing Improves Pain and Treatment-Related Costs of Superficial Partial-Thickness Burns: A Phase III Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: In a phase II study comparing Nile tilapia fish skin to silver sulfadiazine cream for outpatient management of superficial partial-thickness burns, the fish skin decreased reepithelialization time (average reduction, 1.43 days), dressing changes (average reduction, 3.72 dressings), and visual analogue scale pain scores. The present study aimed to further evaluate Nile tilapia fish skin efficacy for superficial partial-thickness burns. Unlike silver sulfadiazine cream, the fish skin has good adherence to the wound bed, which may prevent infections and decrease need for dressing changes. Thus, it could be a low-cost alternative to hasten healing and improve pain of burn patients. METHODS: A phase III randomized controlled trial was conducted from April of 2017 to October of 2018 in Fortaleza, Brazil, and included 115 outpatients aged 18 to 70 years with superficial partial-thickness burns affecting 15 percent or less of body surface area and no previous treatment. Fifty-seven patients were treated with the glycerolized fish skin and 58 with silver sulfadiazine cream 1%. Primary outcomes were reepithelialization time, number of dressings, treatment-related costs, and pain intensity, assessed by means of visual analogue scale, Electronic von Frey, Burns Specific Pain Anxiety Scale, and analgesic use. Patients were evaluated every 48 hours. RESULTS: Patients treated with fish skin required fewer days for reepithelialization (9.7 ± 0.6 days versus 10.2 ± 0.9 days; p = 0.001) and fewer dressings (1.6 ± 0.7 versus 4.9 ± 0.5; p < 0.001). They also had decreased analgesic needs and visual analogue scale, Burns Specific Pain Anxiety Scale, and Electronic von Frey measurements. Finally, fish skin use reduced the final average treatment-related cost per patient by 42.1 percent. CONCLUSION: By hastening reepithelialization, improving burn-related pain, and decreasing treatment-related costs, Nile tilapia fish skin could benefit the resource-poor public health systems of developing countries. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, II.

Concurrent validity of electronic von Frey as an assessment tool for burn associated pain.

An important challenge in pain assessment is the inability of an evaluator to corroborate, using objective signs or indicators, the subjective pain report of a patient. In this scenario, the Electronic von Frey (EVF) anaesthesiometer rises as a valuable Quantitative Sensory Testing modality for pain evaluation. Although EVF showed good reproducibility when applied to healthy areas in humans, its use for evaluation of burn-related pain threshold has not yet been validated. The present study demonstrated the concurrent validity of EVF by determining its correlation with the traditionally used Visual Analog Scale (VAS). EVF was compared to VAS through pain measurements obtained from 44 patients with superficial partial thickness burns treated with silver sulfadiazine. A very good and significant positive correlation between both methods was detected. Baseline clinical and demographic parameters did not significantly affect the association between EVF and VAS. Additionally, EVF had significant and moderate positive correlation with the amount of analgesic used and with the Burns Specific Pain Anxiety Scale scores. Regular pain assessment is essential for the establishment of an appropriate treatment plan; thus, it is critical that we continue to refine our pain assessment skills to avoid chronic pain and psychological trauma in burn patients.

Pediatric Burn Treatment Using Tilapia Skin as a Xenograft for Superficial Partial-Thickness Wounds: A Pilot Study.

This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of Nile tilapia skin as a xenograft for the treatment of partial-thickness burn wounds in children. This is an open-label, monocentric, randomized phase II pilot study conducted in Fortaleza, Brazil. The study population consisted of 30 children between the ages of 2 and 12 years with superficial "partial-thickness" burns admitted less than 72 hours from the thermal injury. In the test group, the tilapia skin was applied. In the control group, a thin layer of silver sulfadiazine cream 1% was applied. Tilapia skin showed good adherence to the wound bed, reducing the number of dressing changes required, the amount of anesthetics used, and providing benefits for the patients and also for healthcare professionals, by reducing the overall work load. The number of days to complete burn wound healing, the total amount of analgesics required throughout the treatment, burn improvement on the day of dressing removal, and pain throughout the treatment were similar to the conventional treatment with silver sulfadiazine. Thus, tilapia skin can be considered an effective and low-cost extra resource in the therapeutic arsenal of pediatric superficial partial thickness burns.

Innovative treatment using tilapia skin as a xenograft for partial thickness burns after a gunpowder explosion.

Tilapia skin has non-infectious microbiota, high amounts of type I collagen, and similar morphological structure to human skin, so it has been suggested as a potential xenograft for the management of burn wounds. A 23-year-old male patient, with no comorbidities, arrived at our burn treatment center after a thermal injury caused by contact with flames from a gunpowder explosion. Superficial partial thickness burns were present in his right upper limb and deep partial thickness burns were present in his left upper limb. Tilapia skin was applied to the lesions, leading to complete reepithelialization within 12 and 17 days of treatment, respectively. No dressing changes were needed and no side effects were observed. Tilapia skin carries the promise of an innovative, easy-to-apply and highly available product that can become the first nationally studied animal skin registered by the National Sanitary Surveillance Agency for use in the treatment of burns.