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Air Force Treating Wounds With Lasers and Nanotech
An anonymous reader passes along a piece up on Wired's Danger Room about advanced medical tech that's being used in the military, but is not available generally due to the lack of FDA approval. "Forget stitches and old-school sutures. The Air Force is funding scientists who are using nanotechnology and lasers to seal up wounds at a molecular level. It might sound like Star Trek tech, but it's actually the latest in a series of ambitious Pentagon efforts to create faster, more effective methods of treating war-zone injuries. ... Instead of being sealed up with a needle and thread, a patient's wound would be coated in a dye, then exposed to green light for 2-3 minutes. The dye absorbs the light and catalyzes molecular bonds between the tissue's collagen. The bonds instantly create a seal that's watertight, which prevents inflammation or risk of infection, and speeds up the formation of scar tissue."
Pretty soon, you'll be able to play Crysis without a computer!
Sounds like a fancy-scmancy version of Quikclot, the powder you can pour on a wound to form an instant clot.
Not only is it widely used, you can buy it for your own first aid kit from Amazon and others.
yes, it was. RTFA
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
Superglue is too fast now?
Like the article says, these techniques are for superficial wounds. Is that really something our military is having a problem with? I think the military should be a little more concerned with critical injuries than lacerations that can be closed with superglue. Maybe it's a bigger problem than I realize?
There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Before there are rants on the unapproved use of medical procedures on the troops, as suggested by the summary, read the article. It states they are only doing clinical trials, and mention the difficulty in getting FDA approval.
It is possible that they can use this system to repair underwater wires that transmit internet data. I mean, don't just stand there, Satelites aren't the only way internet is moved overseas.
We're now one step closer to... Wait for it...
Shark troops! Heh heh heh.
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and I love living in it...now where is my anti-aging pill?
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How is this different than
Cauterization?
This doesn't require actually burning the tissue.
It is possible that they can use this system to repair underwater wires that transmit internet data.
Wait, what!?
The systems referenced in this article promote the clotting of blood and creation of scar tissue to speed the natural healing process of a body. Last time I checked, those are mechanisms that aren't present in undersea cables.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
I rtfa and I can't find a direct link to the use of nanoparticles. Are they the component of the "glue" that, when activated by the laser forms the seal? Or are they a figment (pigment?) of imagination here and used to attract readers with a buzzword? http://www2.massgeneral.org/wellman/faculty-kochevar-projects.htm
Cauterization uses the direct application of heat to seal wounds. The heat can be applied in a number of ways, including lasers, an electric current, or just a very hot piece of metal. This, however, is not a technique to destroy tissue but rather to glue it back together. The active principle is a light-sensitive dye called Rose Bengal that is applied to the wound. When Rose Bengal absorbs light with a wavelength of around 560nm, it enters an excited state which ends up transferring energy to surrounding molecules, which in the case of a wound, would primarily be collagen protein. The transferred energy generates free radical species that cause the collagen molecules to bind to each other, sealing the wound. So there isn't much heating of the wound; the laser is present to activate the Rose Bengal, not cook the tissue.
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
My sharks can have a medical contribution now!
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Who else mentally flashed to the episode of TNG?
Jesus, this was more informative than either the summary or the Article, and remarkably clear. Nice work.
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
Christ, that was more insightful than either the first post or this post, and remarkably concise. Nice work.
dude dude dude dude dude DUDE!
They could use it to FIX THE OIL SPILL!
quick somebody get me the president on the phone!
Correct me if I'm wrong. That sounds like it's cauterization, but of a significantly smaller amount of flesh.
Sorry to nitpick, but 2-3 minutes is not "instantly."
Currently hooked on AMP
Celestial Teapot, your post was the green light to this Rose Bengal of replies. Radical job.
The nanotechnology bots better not run out of power in side of the body. At least we have code fixed now.
I'm not a doctor but it seems to me that for many years the idea of slowing healing to prevent scar tissue formation has been in play. Now they want to generate more scar tissue through faster healing.
Anyone who has ever been around a patient who is having facial tissue restored knows the odor of the acetic acid that is soaked into the bandages to prevent rapid healing,
Yea, it does.
Hot piece of metal -> rose bengal
Scale: molecular level
Still, energy (ie, heat) is being transferred from the media to the wound.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Remember that an injured soldier typically takes three soldiers to remove him/her, whereas a dead soldier takes one. Injured soldiers are a real drain on tactical effectiveness, ...
This is one of the main reasons that military weapons are designed to wound rather than kill. (Another being that, once the war is over, it's nice to have patched up as many as possible of the enemy wounded and thus have fewer killed and fewer grieving families pushing for future unfriendly relations between the countries or running multi-generation vendettas.)
Many states ban the use of the civilian (i.e. semiautomatic) "plowshare" versions of military assault rifles for hunting because they're too puny (and they're typically on the lower end of what's allowed where they are legal). The idea is to shock and kill the prey animal quickly, to minimize both its suffering and the chance it will run away to die elsewhere (or possibly live on with painful and crippling injuries).
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
He's in shell 2 core, unreachable by radio waves. Use the nikita to take out the electric control panel.
intro disclaimer: "This is a work of fiction - any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental".
PURELY COINCIDENTAL!
... seems to me that for many years the idea of slowing healing to prevent scar tissue formation has been in play. Now they want to generate more scar tissue through faster healing.
I suspect the "scar tissue" bit was from the news article author rather than the researchers. As I understand it (and I'm not a medical type either), quickly cleaning a wound and gluing it shut will lead to minimal scar tissue formation.
Unless the free radicals from the activated die destroy too many of the growth factors from the ruptured cells and their matrix, of course. As I understand it, scar tissue is what you get when the stem cells can't figure out what tissue is SUPPOSED to go there, so they just make something strong to hold it together.
Also: The body can clean out some scar tissue later if they CAN figure it out later and the scar tissue wasn't too thick. That typically happens when the cut tissues are misaligned - i.e. due to swelling - or parts of the tissue are lost - which blocking post-traumatic infections can mitigate. So the sooner you get it cleaned and accurately closed (if you don't clean away the growth signaling chemicals), the less scarring.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
They mention a special light source. Is this a UV acrylic chemistry?
Same idea but using a die that produces the triggering catalytic chemical event when activated by a particular narrow band of GREEN light.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
The nature of the reactions, despite 'application of energy', is quite different; the energy involved is also on vastly different scales.
Cauterization involves application of heat, burning the tissues (killing the tissues) and denaturating the proteins (completely wrecking their structure), causing them to precipitate out of solution and clump together, plugging things up (plugging up bleeding blood vessels, and also causing blood to clot around the plugs, being a side effect of it). Lots of heat energy, sufficient to burn flesh. Usually done with a fair bit more precision these days of course.
This technique, on the other hand, is quite similar to one which I use from time to time for disinfection of periodontal pockets around teeth... application of a dye (in my case, toluidine blue) which binds to the bacteria, and then activation of the dye with the appropriate frequency of light which is matched to the absorption spectrum of the dye (sorry, not at the office so can't look up the specs), generating free radicals which react with bacterial components and ultimately killing the bacteria. The energy involved is literally that of the photon of the proper wavelength which knocks the electron out of the dye when the dye absorbs it... multiplied many times of course. Without the matched dye to absorb the light though, the light won't be doing a heck of a lot of useful work... sure it'll be absorbed by other molecules, which does heat them up somewhat, but nowhere near the level of heat used in cauterization.
In this situation, the dye is Rose Bengal, which likely has an affinity for collagen. Activation of the dye causes the collagen molecules to form bonds with one another, cross-linking them. Essentially, it turns the existing collagen where it is applied into the 'glue' to hold the wound together. No destruction of living tissue as cautery would (whether tissues die from other factors with the injury, such as insufficient blood supply, are a different story), and also much less of a mess of various byproducts left behind afterwards as well.
-- Silhouette
Most white fillings placed these days are a composite, the resin part typically being something such as Bis-GMA, the 'MA' being 'methacrylate', the chemistry behind it being acrylic chemistry which allows for the polymerization of the individual molecules together. Look up 'acryl' or 'acrylic acid'... same basic end group, but the properties of whatever you end up with vary greatly with what you attach to it.
The light activation itself is not of the Bis-GMA though, but a separate photoinitiator, commonly camphorquinone, which absorbs in the blue range... knocks an electron off, creates free radical, free-radical polymerization of the Bis-GMA, etc., the usual story with acrylic-types. (Fun fact: camphorquinone is a very yellow molecule [since it absorbs blue!], which makes for all sorts of fun for the composite manufacturers trying to get the shades right for filling materials). Once upon a time, UV photoinitators were used, but due to safety concerns everything's gone to blue light these days for filling and sealants. UV photoinitiators are still used in many other different areas though... the last time I had a chip in my windshield repaired, it was with a UV-cured acrylic.
This wound treatment though, is using Rose Bengal, which is typically used as a dye, but as with many coloured molecules, absorption of that frequency of light which characterizes them knocks that electron off, creating a free radical... which in turn can react with other substances. In this case it is collagen molecules.
So, to compare with acrylic chemistry... it's sort of an analogous process, where Rose Bengal is the photoinitiator, and the collagen in the body is like the acrylic!
-- Silhouette
Wow, now I actually have a clue about what is going on! Thanks!
I need to go look up free radicals again. No matter how often I look into that, I keep forgetting it. Odd.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
This looks really cool... but as someone that cares for a bedridden spouse, this would be FANTASTIC for taking care of bedsores...
Stone
Cauterization leaves a no-longer bleeding open wound with dead tissue in it. This glues the tissue back together neatly.
Isn't that the one where Jason gets an upgrade?