Earth & Sky

Nano bandage stops bleeding, aids surgeons

A team of scientists at MIT and Hong Kong University has found that a liquid can stop bleeding in seconds.

Controlling a patient’s bleeding is a challenge for surgeons. It takes up nearly half of a surgeon’s time in the operating room. The new liquid contains nano-sized protein fragments called peptides. These microscopic nanoparticles self-assemble, that is, they build a structure on their own when they encounter salt. Here’s neuroscientist Rutledge Ellis-Behnke.

Rutledge Ellis-Behnke: It flows into the wound site very very quickly, and as soon as it sees salt, it will start to self-assemble. We’re not totally sure how it works, but we think it is forming a physical patch.

Ellis-Behnke speculates that this patch might consist of interwoven nanofibers that block liquids from flowing in and out of the body.

Rutledge Ellis-Behnke: You know when you’re taking a shower, hair gets in the drain. If you get enough hair in the drain what happens? All the water doesn’t go out. So, we think this works in a similar fashion.

In experiments on rats and hamsters, the fibrous patch has worked within 15 seconds to stop bleeding from internal and external wounds. Ellis-Behnke told Earth & Sky that one day this material could improve human surgery by reducing the amount of bleeding and, consequently, reducing the amount of time it takes for surgeons to complete an operation.

Thanks today to the National Science Foundation.

Written by Jeremy Shere