Nile Tilapia Skin Xenograft Versus Silver-Based Dressings in the Management of Partial-Thickness Burn Wounds: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

<b>Background</b>: Burns are a serious public health problem worldwide, causing high morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to compare two forms of treatment for partial skin burns and to determine whether one is superior to the other in terms of efficacy and benefits through a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. This article highlights the efficacy of tilapia skin in the treatment of burns. We performed a meta-analysis of 199 patients and highlighted the promising results that indicate the clinical relevance of this resource when we compared the cost of dressings with the daily need for dressing changes, healing potential, and reduction in pain level according to the VAS scale and reduced frequency of dressing changes. <b>Methods</b>: A search of PubMed, Cochrane Central, and LILACS was performed to identify randomized controlled trials comparing tilapia skin and silver-based dressings for treating burns. Studies involving overlapping populations and animals were excluded. The outcomes of interest were complete re-epithelialization, decreased pain level, and dressing change. <b>Results</b>: Summarize the article's main findings. <b>Conclusions</b>: Four randomized trials were included with a total of 199 patients with partial-thickness burns between the ages of 2 and 70 years. A total of 99 (49.74%) patients were treated with tilapia skin, and conventional treatment was used on 100 (50.25%) of the patients. Differences were found between the tilapia and silver-based treatments concerning re-epithelialization (MD -0.48; CI 95% -0.71 to -0.24; <i>p</i> < 0.01; I2 = 0%), decreased pain level (MD -0.79; CI 95% -1.10 to -0.47; <i>p</i> < 0.01; I2 = 0%), and dressing change outcome (MD -3.54; 95% CI -5.81 to -1.26; <i>p</i> = 0.02; I2 = 97%).