By Lucas Karamanoukian
Special to the Mirror-Spectator
A recent medical report published in the journal Military Medicine documents the successful use of a novel Fish Skin Graft to treat combatants during the 2020 Karabakh War. Dr. Foaud Reda, the plastic surgeon and lead author of the report, states that the temporary burn dressings were “very much comparable to human skin” in temporizing combat burn injuries.
According to the study authors, the Fish Skin Grafts were provided on an emergency basis by Kerecis, an Icelandic company that originally patented the acellular burn dressing. In conjunction with the Armenian government, Kerecis further deployed two physicians (Dr. Hilmar Kjartans and Dr. Steven Jefferey) to deliver and train Armenian surgeons on the use of the Fish Skin Graft.
The authors described the use of Fish Skin Grafts on three Armenian combatants that were injured as a result of either blast or explosion injuries in Artsakh and transferred for higher level-of-care to hospitals in the Republic of Armenia. The fish-derived skin grafts were used to help cover exposed wounds and temporize wound coverage prior to definitive reconstructive surgery.
The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War represented an unprovoked attack on the sovereignty of the Artsakh Republic and the Republic of Armenia by Azerbaijan. With disregard to the peaceful civilian population in Artsakh, Azerbaijan launched an unprecedented military advancement using lethal drone attacks on civilian and military infrastructure along the entire contact-line.
