Effectiveness of Fish-Skin Grafts in Chronic or Stalled Wounds

Introduction: Can the use of fish-skin grafts improve chronic or stalled wounds? Chronic wounds are not only costly to treat but can dramatically decrease a patient’s quality of life. Thirty percent of patients suffering from chronic wounds also suffer from depressive symptoms or anxiety (Renner and Erfurt-Berge, 2017). By finding ways to heal chronic or stalled wounds in a quicker manner, patient’s quality of life is enhanced while decreasing other risks such as infection or amputation.

Methods: Fish-skin graft was used on the following types of wounds: pressure, traumatic, surgical, venous, and lymphedema. After debridement of each wound, the fish-skin graft was applied, anchored into place by a contact layer and steri strips, and covered with a secondary dressing. It was found that wounds located on the coccyx had to have the fish-skin graft applied biweekly or deterioration of the wound occurred due to maceration. The other types of wounds were treated weekly.

Results: Every wound treated improved using fish-skin graft as evidenced by measurements of the wounds. The surgical wound, specifically, healed after only nine applications and patient was able to avoid loss of limb.

Conclusion: As wounds began to heal, patients verbalized an overall improvement in quality of life as they were able to return to the things they once enjoyed.