From Fire to Water Stella, a dog rescued from a house fire by the Lansing Fire Department, was brought to the Michigan State University Veterinary Medical Center’s Emergency and Critical Care Medicine Service (ECCM). In critical condition, her diagnoses included smoke inhalation, pneumonia, ulcers, scars in her eyes, and second- and third-degree burns that covered 10 percent of her body—head, nose, ears, and hind end. Worst of all were the burns on the left side of her body. “We had to get creative to treat Stella’s burns. There was significant trauma to her lungs, which took priority. She wasn’t a great candidate to sedate heavily or anesthetize,” said Dr. Brea Sandness, surgical resident at the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine. Stella’s Hero: How a special donor and fish skin graftft helped heal Stella That’s when Dr. Sandness and Anna-Marie Struble, a fourth year DVM student on a clinical rotation with the Soft Tissue Surgery Service, discovered Kerecis, the only company in the world developing, manufacturing, and selling soft tissue grafts from Icelandic Code, cleared by FDA and EMEA as a medical device for the surgical applications, burn treatment and wound healing. The grafts, which were produced and manufactured by Kerecis of Isafjordur, Iceland, were donated by Kerecis and shipped to MSU immediately. Typically, with large surface-area wounds, surgeons use free tissue grafts, local flaps, tissue expanders, primary closure, or other potentially regenerative techniques. These techniques, however, can involve substantial donor-site morbidity and prolonged operative time, all of which can increase the hospital stay and costs associated with care. “With these grafts, we needed only minimal sedation for placement, so we could start the healing process without putting her fragile lungs, or other areas of her body, under additional stress” explained Dr. Sandness. The fish skin grafts fully integrate into the wound, cover the exposed area, and protect it from bacteria and the environment. This also limits heat and water loss, which can be critical in treating large burns. One key benefit of using a biologic product that integrates into the wound is that there is less need for dressing changes, which can be particularly painful when the dressing sticks to the wound. “Burn injuries present unique challenges that slow wound healing and cause inflammation, bacterial infection, pain, and scarring,” says Dr. Sandness. The rapid contraction and scarring process that occurs as burn wounds heal can leave patients like Stella with limited functionality and increased risk of inflammation and infection, which could endanger the life of the patient. A burn wound treatment that creates a barrier to infections and enhances the body’s response to healing was essential to reduce her risk of mortality. The fish skin graft and application. The fish skin graft. Stella under light sedation as her burn wound was being cleaned.
