Awesome powder drives itself to stop severe bleeding

Researchers from the University of British Columbia have invented the first-ever powder that stops severe bleeding and propels itself to the area of the bleed—a potentially huge advancement in trauma care.
“Bleeding is the number one killer of young people, and maternal death from postpartum hemorrhage can be as high as one in 50 births in low resource settings, so these are extreme problems,” explained co-author Christian Kastrup, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia, in a press release.
Such internal bleeding is especially difficult to stop, as blood loss that occurs within the body can be impossible to reach and treat, and external clotting agents often get washed away if the blood flow is too strong.
“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,” said Katstrup. “Here, for the first time, we’ve come up with an agent that can do that.”
How it works
Katstrup worked with a team of researchers, biochemical engineers, and emergency medicine practitioners to develop the substance. The powder itself is fairly simple—it consists of calcium carbonate particles and coagulants (blood clotting agents).
The calcium carbonate generates carbon dioxide gas that propels the coagulants forward. The carbonate particles are bound with a synthetic clotting agent known as tranexamic acid or a natural one known as thrombin, and so the coagulant is transported through the wound deep into damaged tissues.
As reported in Science Advances, the proof-of-concept was shown in two different animal models after being studied in vitro. Even when the animals were given wounds that mimicked a gunshot to the femoral artery—the one in the leg that can bleed out in under a minute—the particles were highly effective in stopping the bleeding.
Of course, like anything else, the jump to humans won’t be immediate, and much more testing has to be done first. But the applications could be widespread; the calcium carbonate could possibly carry medications besides just coagulants, and if it’s cleared, it could save many trauma victims or soldiers in the field.
It could also really help this guy.

“The area we’re really focusing on is postpartum hemorrhage: in the uterus, after childbirth where you can’t see the damaged vessels but you can put the powder into that area and the particles can propel and find those damaged vessels,” said Kastrup.
You can watch a video from the University on the powder below!

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Feature Image: Christian Kastrup and James Baylis