Miracle gel stops life-threatening bleeding within seconds
Plasters and bandages could soon be finding their days are numbered, if some American lab-dwellers get their way.
It's called VetiGel and when it's applied on to a wound, it causes the bleeding to stop almost immediately, reports The Mirror.
We're talking about proper, blood-spurting wounds here – not the kind of thing that can be sorted with a quick blast from some of that spray-on plaster you can get down the chemists.
Blood platelets stick together when the VetiGel comes into contact with them, causing the bleeding to stop in around 20 seconds.
It also helps form a strong clot, that is maintained over time, aiding and speeding up recovery.
Even better, it's plant-based and bioreabsorbable, which means that it can either be removed or just left to absorb into the wound.
Right now, it’s being developed for vets to use on animals, and it isn’t for sale just yet.
Elsewhere, something similar is being developed for use on wounded soldiers.
A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University has developed a similar gel that can be injected and help speed up blood coagulation.
Akhilesh Gaharwar, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Texas A&M, says: "The time to get to a medical facility can take a half hour to an hour, and this hour is crucial; it can decide life and death.
"Our material's combination of injectability, rapid mechanical recovery, physiological stability and the ability to promote coagulation result in a hemostat for treating incompressible wounds in out-of-hospital, emergency situations.”
It's still in the testing phase, but the hope is that once it has been perfected, soldiers will carry syringes of the gel with them in combat, allowing them to treat themselves in the event of injury.
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