
Startup creates VetiGel, a plant based polymer that seals wounds in seconds - lelf
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-11-startup-vetigel-based-polymer-wounds.html
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robbiep
So a few people mention that this is a really revolutionary product and
someone suggests that it should be in every first aid kit.

It's certainly cool. But apart from a few specialised applications this is not
really a game changer. This is because the best defence against bleeding is
tamponade. As in, a finger applying pressure. I work in an emergency
department and recently we had a trauma patient that was bleeding. The trauma
fellow was doing his assessment and a emergency consultant was getting very
anxious and stating that the patient had to go to theatre right now as he was
bleeding out. The trauma fellow was trying to complete his primary survey and
wanted the emergency specialist to shut up so he stuck his finger in the
wound, the patient stopped bleeding, and he turned around and got on with the
rest of the survey.

The point is that bleeding is very rarely life threatening, and te couple of
applications where is would be are military and intra operative.

The intra operative application would be particularly useful when a patient
had a lacerated spleen or liver or when these organs are operated on.
Currently we use a product called geloseal to stop bleeding on these organs -
it works pretty well. But if this product works as suggested it may be better.

No-one needs this in their first aid kit, and until it is approved for use in
surgery I don't think we will save any lives with it, but it is still a very
cool product.

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khoury
This is a 𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚 negative way of looking at it, in my opinion. It's
obvously in a early stage, still only testing on animals. We have no idea how
this product will work when it's "in every ambulance".

~~~
DanBC
[http://imgur.com/Jg6Zanj](http://imgur.com/Jg6Zanj)

I have no clue what word you used. Font choice isn't always under the user's
control and Unicode is inconsistant for those people.

~~~
eropple
"Ridiculously", with poofy italic fonts.

Since I'm guessing you're on Windows, Notepad is unicode-happy and you can
paste into it.

~~~
yzzxy
There's an iphone header in the screenshot.

~~~
eropple
So there is. Wasn't loading when I clicked it. My bad.

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nkurz
Although this one is not yet on the market, here's a summary of some competing
products: [http://productresearchgear.com/wp-
content/uploads/PRgRatings...](http://productresearchgear.com/wp-
content/uploads/PRgRatings-HemostaticAgents.pdf)

A couple are based on minerals (zeolite and kaolin), and intriguingly, a
couple are based on chitosan (the material in shellfish and insect
exoskeletons). In general, the consensus is that modern hemostatic compounds
are amazing at stopping blood flow, but limited in use to life-threatening
situations due to the difficulty of removing from the wound after treatment.

It will be interesting to see how this new one compares.

~~~
joezydeco
The kaolin formula apparently generated so much heat it could cause 2nd degree
burns in the patient.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/2mx653/this_gel_can_st...](http://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/2mx653/this_gel_can_stop_bleeding_instantly/cm8p9q5)

~~~
pmr_
The image in the reddit thread is clearly taken from the video that is part of
OP's submission, yet commenter KanterBama identifies it as QuickClot.
QuickClot however is a powder so I think his comment should not be considered
factual information.

~~~
declan
QuikClot is very nice. I had the opportunity to use the 2013 formulation for
the first time last weekend when someone in my kitchen was cleaning a blender
with their finger. The blender was not unplugged and, well, turned on. Their
finger had multiple deep lacerations down to the adipose tissue. (Fortunately
this was not me!)

As one of the other posters in this thread said, the 2013 formulation is
impregnated dry gauze. It worked very quickly to stop the bleeding with no
heat--the top left of the package, in fact, is labeled "heat free."

We ended up going to the Palo Alto Medical Center's urgent care clinic and
they applied glue instead of stitches because of the lacerations' proximity to
the fingernail. The nurse was surprised I had QuikClot on hand and mistakenly
thought it worked by "cauterizing the wound."

The downside is the price, about $40 for the combat gauze I used.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> The downside is the price, about $40 for the combat gauze I used.

Sounds reasonable for the use case though!

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astazangasta
Isn't this what cyanoacrylate (crazy glue) was invented for? Battlefield wound
stitching?

~~~
nkurz
No. Some formulations are useful for this, but this was not its original
purpose or goal: [http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/06/cyanoacrylate-
supe...](http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/06/cyanoacrylate-superglue-
adhesive-glue-podcast)

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avighnay
Based on the name, wonder if the gel is an extract from an ancient medicinal
oil from the plant Vetiver (Tamil)? The medicinal properties of this plant are
well known since ancient times and are chronicled in ayurvedic practice and
ballads of India.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysopogon_zizanioides](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysopogon_zizanioides)
[http://ayurvedicoils.com/tag/vetiver-oil-in-
ayurveda](http://ayurvedicoils.com/tag/vetiver-oil-in-ayurveda)

~~~
neilmovva
It seems that "Veti" just refers to the veterinary application. I've played
with similar would healing biomaterials before, and from the (scarce)
available materials, it looks like they're using a sodium-alginate based
polymer, which can be chemically crosslinked with calcium ions. With some
additional clotting factors and tissue sealing agents (tranglutaminase comes
to mind), rapid wound closure looks pretty feasible.

~~~
avighnay
thank you for the info, good to know it

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simi_
TED video:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_landolina_this_gel_can_make_you...](http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_landolina_this_gel_can_make_you_stop_bleeding_instantly)

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tomphoolery
I saw something on Facebook being shared about this...they took a piece of
meat and ran a tube of blood through it, then applied this gel and the
bleeding stopped within seconds. It was like watching an infomercial, except
this time it's real. Although it was a video, the title of it was in Japanese
and I can't find it anymore. :(

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joezydeco
This one?

[http://i.imgur.com/dFJgJU6.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/dFJgJU6.jpg)

(Trigger warning: bleeding)

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doctorfoo
Wow. This stuff should be in an emergency kit in every home.

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bitL
Military is known for using aerospace-level glues such as Loctite to quickly
close bleeding wounds of soldiers (~5 seconds). Is this something similar or a
completely different idea?

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bjelkeman-again
A friend was a carpet layer, who often cut himself with the sharp knives. They
always glued the wound with carpet glue. He never had problems or got scars.
(Of corse, one person is not a clinical study.)

~~~
ommunist
+1. There is a plenty of witch doctor tech available in the wild, and in daily
use of many 'uncivilized' people, that will never gets its way to the market.
Because these work, and things that work are disruptive. UPD: my fav in this
particular case - solution of some Amanita mushrooms in alcohol. Cures any
burn, no traces left. Works even on hot chemical burns, like from caprolactam.
Will never be accepted by official med.

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ommunist
That I like. When we get drug that can save lifes immediately, pharma lobby
will make every effort to hinder its way to the market, requiring more tests
on humans. Humans ARE animals. Enough tests! Gimme the drug. Ad: 'Too
effective. Humans use at own risk. 100% rabbits recovery rate'.

