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Material Made From Crustaceans Could Combat Battlefield Blood Loss

MTorrice writes: A foam composed of a polymer derived from crustacean shells may prevent more soldiers from falling victim to the most prolific killer on the battlefield: blood loss. Pressure is one of the best tools that medics have to fight bleeding, but they can't use it on severe wounds near organs. Here, compression could do more harm than good. First responders have no way to effectively dam blood flows from these non-compressible injuries, which account for the majority of hemorrhagic deaths. The new foam could help stop bleeding in these types of injuries. It relies on chitosan, a biopolymer that comes from processed crustacean shells. By modifying the chitosan, the developers gave the material the ability to anchor blood cells into gel-like networks, essentially forming blood clots. The researchers dispersed the modified chitosan in water to create a fluid they could spray directly onto noncompressible wounds.

2 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. ITT: pretentious anons who didn't read the article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, shellfish based bandages have been around for the last decade, yes. No, this isnt the same as that. This is a spray, not a bandage. No pressure necessary, just spray the wound like windex and you're good. This is a major advance and you lot are "lol omg seen this 10 years ago lolslashdot",

  2. Re:Another tool by Dragon+Bait · · Score: 4, Informative

    Peace would be much more efficient.

    I agree. How do you suggest we create peace with ISIL/ISIS?

    Perhaps we should not have created ISIS in the first place. Blame Obama.

    Or perhaps since the local area had already mostly found an equilibrium, we should not have toppled that evil-bastard Saddam Hussein. Yes, he was evil. Yes, I would not want him for my president. But he was reasonably well contained and provided a counter balance to the other powers in the region. Blame Bush II.

    We can walk our way back in time and blame [nearly?] every U.S. president regardless of party back to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. We can then start blaming the Europeans for carving up the Mid-East in such a way that it was a breeding ground for future wars.

    But peace? Do you have any concrete mechanisms that would actually improve the situation?