Dinter P, Weiss L, Navarini AA, Mueller SM, et al.
Wound repair and regeneration : official publication of the Wound Healing Society [and] the Eur.... Date of publication 2025 May 1;volume 33(3):e70019.
1. Wound Repair Regen. 2025 May-Jun;33(3):e70019. doi: 10.1111/wrr.70019.
Real-world outcomes of acellular fish skin grafts for chronic wounds: A
retrospective analysis of effectiveness and costs.
Dinter P(1), Weiss L(1), Navarini AA(1), Mueller SM(1).
Author information:
(1)Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Chronic wounds (CW) are a major public health problem. Acellular fish skin
grafts (AFSG) are increasingly used in advanced wound care, but data on their
effectiveness and costs in real-world settings are scarce. We therefore
retrospectively analysed the wound surface area (WSA), pain scores, and
AFSG-related costs in patients with CW over a 12-week follow-up period. In this
single-centre observational study, we analysed two datasets of 34 (full dataset)
and 22 (WSA-dataset) CW patients treated with AFSG in a university hospital. Of
34 AFSG-treated patients (mean age 75.9 ± 11.4 years, 44.0% females) with 50 CW
of various aetiologies (median ulcer duration 32 weeks), 66.6% experienced pain
improvement at 12 weeks. Of 22 patients, 19 (86.4%) showed a mean reduction in
WSA of -60.7% ± 143.8% (p = 0.0025); 36.4% of CW were healed. AFSG-related costs
were 1232.3 EUR/patient and 130.4 EUR/reduced cm2 (n = 22), which was 6.5 times
more cost-effective compared to previous study results using living cellular
skin substitutes. During 12 weeks of follow-up in a real-world setting, AFSG
resulted in reduced WSA in most patients, improved pain in two-thirds, and
healed CW in one-third. AFSG may be more cost-effective than other products, but
prospective head-to-head comparisons are needed.
© 2025 The Wound Healing Society.
DOI: 10.1111/wrr.70019
PMID: 40297994 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
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