From the fish market to the hospital: Brazilian doctors use tilapia skin to treat severe burns…

In Ceará, Brazil, a team of 46 researchers found something no one expected in the skin of a fish that ends up in the trash.
Tilapia, the same fish fried with garlic and parsley in thousands of kitchens, turned out to have skin with more type 1 collagen than pork skin, just the right amount of moisture to heal and resistance similar to human skin.

The surgeon Edmar Maciel, director of the Burn Support Institute, explains that the traditional method requires changing the dressing every day: removing the cream, cleaning the open wound, and re-bandaging it. Tilapia skin, by contrast, remains attached to the wound for several days, preventing the patient from having to go through that painful process every day.

Before being used, the skin undergoes a cleaning process that removes scales, toxins, and even the fish smell, and is then cut into strips that are frozen for up to two years. The team is already studying its use in gynecology and endoscopies.