https://newatlas.com/medical-tech/battlefield-wound-spray/
"Researchers have developed a spray-on powder that turns into a
wound-conforming gel when it comes in contact with blood. The breakthrough has
the possibility of dramatically improving wound care in combat and other
life-threatening situations.
When soldiers are wounded in battle, stopping visible bleeding is of paramount
importance. In fact, bleeding is the leading cause of death in the first few
hours after injury, and death from bleeding is the number one cause of
potentially survivable deaths in combat situations. Yet stopping a bleed can be
trickier than it sounds if the wound is particularly deep or jagged.
Seeking a solution to treating such injuries, researchers at the Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), one of whom is an Army Major,
developed a powder that reacts with cations (particles with a positive
electrical charge) like calcium in blood to turn into a gel state in just one
second, sealing even deep and irregular wounds instantly.
The substance is made from three natural ingredients: alginate, a substance
extracted from brown seaweed; gellan gum, a natural thickener made from
bacteria through fermentation; and chitosan, a powder made from the
exoskeletons of crustaceans and insects as well as from fungal cell walls.
The alginate and gellan gum turn from a powder into a gel in the presence of
blood immediately upon contact. The chitosan, which has a positive charge,
attracts negatively charged red blood cells and platelets, causing them to
clump and stop bleeding. The powder has been named with an initialism based on
its ingredients plus an "L" indicating a link between them all: AGCL.
The powder's ingredients also exhibit antibacterial action and showed a cell
viability rate of over 99% in animal tests, so it helps with tissue
regeneration. Furthermore, when the gel forms, it can hold more than seven
times its own weight in blood, which means it can handle even extreme bleeding
situations. AGCL can maintain its properties for two years, even when kept at
room temperature, and can handle high humidity and other extreme environments
well.
In tests using mice, after surgical damage to the liver, AGCL was able to
perform significantly better than other current anti-bleeding agents, with
normal liver function returning just two weeks after its application.
While primarily developed for treating battlefield wounds, the researchers say
that AGCL can naturally be used in standard emergency medicine and surgical
applications."
Via Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
