Cashlino –
“Freedom” 
A 36-year-old woman who had suffered severe burns has been given fish skin to reduce her injuries in pioneering new treatment, Dailymail reports. The woman who goes by the name Maria Ines Candido da Silva, 36, worked as a waitress at a restaurant in Russas, north east Brazil.
She suffered severe burns to her arms, neck and face after a gas canister at the restaurant exploded. In a pioneer treatment, doctors have now used skin of a common freshwater fish to dress her skin.
It’s believed to be the first time in medical history that scientists have used the skin of a fish as a plaster to treat wounds.
‘I was in absolute agony and desperate for anything to ease my suffering,’ Miss da Silva told The Sun.
‘I loved the treatment and would recommend it to anyone who has suffered like me.’
A team of doctors at the Dr José Frota Institute Burns Unit in Fortaleza, north east Brazil, developed the pioneering treatment. And the first trials on some 50 patients were completed this month.
They used the skin from Tilapia fish, a disease-resistant species found in Brazilian rivers. Before the fish strips are used, researchers put the skin through a rigorous process that removes scales, muscle tissue, toxins and any possibility of transmitted diseases. It also gets rid of the fishy smell.
The fish skin reduces the risk of infection – and it’s cheaper to work with, experts say. It is stretched and laminated then stored in refrigerated banks based in Sao Paulo, in strips of 10cm by 20cm for up to two years.
