Fish Skin Grafts as Treatment for Neonatal IV Extravasation Wounds

Dr. Rene Amaya:

So my name is Dr. Rene Amaya. I practice pediatric wound care in Houston, Texas. I'm part of the Pediatrics Medical Group, and my work primarily focuses on inpatient wound care in neonatal medicine.

So my poster focuses on the application of Kerecis fish-skin graft. It was a novel application, first time ever published or work on in neonatal patients. So I was excited about this project because the opportunity to apply this novel new device that's never been used before in babies. My patients require a lot of something that's going to be both safe and effective. And I wanted to see the application of this new product in the pediatric world, in babies. So much of my work is not necessarily just... the goal is not to close the wound, but also to have both an aesthetic great outcome, as well as functional, because the baby's going to turn into a 16-year-old one day who wants to go to prom or wants to play golf or play football. So that's my goal, that I have to look for forward-thinking more on the application of dressings that I use in the babies.

So in this situation, we had three severe extravasation injuries in the neonates, but all three were premature infants that had severe large wounds on... two had large wounds on their hands, one had it on their leg. And in this study we illustrated after debridement of the nonviable eschar, we applied a simple application, at bedside. In two of the cases, we used a Kerecis fish graft. It's intact, small sheet, right over the wound bed itself, secured it with simple dressings, kept an eye on the dressing. And lo and behold, within less than 7 to 10 days, the entire wound had closed and granulated. So parents happy, nurses happy, doctors happy, this doctor happy, too. So we had great outcomes in those two.

The other one was a novel application, same product, but instead of a sheet, we used the micro size. So a fragmented tissue of that same sheet in a cavitary wound lesion on the leg. And that baby, once again, amazing outcome, quite quick in closure. Took about 10 days and did amazing outcome. So very pleased with the outcomes. The babies did extremely well. There were no secondary side effects associated with it, and the aesthetic component was beautiful. So quite happy overall.

Well, I definitely think in my world, in pediatric wound care, a lot of the work is pioneer in nature. And we want to make sure that other physicians who are taking care of premature neonates get the opportunity to share this experience. Why is it limited only to Houston, Texas? Of course not. Let's spread it to the world and let them utilize this for their babies, as well.

We always said this was a novel application, so we wanted to make sure that there weren't going to be any side effects associated with it. So careful monitoring of the sites for any type of unknown or unexpected secondary complications, swelling, redness, infection, et cetera. None of those occurred thankfully. But no, other than just keeping a close eye on it, we were quite pleased with the outcomes.

Well, definitely taking the next step would be using it more often, and as we just discussed, spreading it to others. Why is this miracle have to be limited to Houston, Texas? Why can't it be in Chicago, in Des Moines, in France, in Italy, et cetera. So great opportunity, in my perspective, to share this information with the world and make sure these babies are taken care of in a optimal manner.