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It’s truly the age for cool scientific discoveries. It seems like every day there’s something new that we could never imagine existing a few years ago.
This new one is super cool. Researchers at the University of British Columbia developed it, and it’s a new treatment for trauma-related blood loss.
It’s a powder, and it propels itself against blood flow, stopping bleeding in difficult-to-reach places in the body.
It’s a huge step forward where severe bleeding is concerned. Not only that, but it works out a lot of the problems of past blood coagulants. Christian Kastrup, lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, said, “People have developed hundreds of agents that can clot blood but the issue is that it’s hard to push these therapies against severe blood flow, especially far enough upstream to reach the leaking vessels.
“Here, for the first time, we’ve come up with an agent that can do that.”
The group of researchers for this project included a variety of people, from biochemical engineers to emergency room physicians.
The powder is made of gas-generating calcium carbonate microparticles, which release carbon dioxide after being applied to a wound topically or internally. The carbonate makes microparticles that combine with tranexamic acid to clot blood deep in the wounded tissue.
It was developed mainly for the female uterus, particularly after birth. Postpartum hemorrhage, which is when the uterus bleeds excessively after birth, has been hard to pinpoint with other coagulants and blood clotters. This powder can stop the bleeding In its tracks in an area that’s particularly hard to reach.
This is one of the first treatments of its kind that can treat both internal and external bleeding. They hope it will be not only helpful for postpartum hemorrhage, but for combat wounds and sinus operations.
