No need to apply pressure: Two innovations to stop the bleeding

Researchers have been able to develop two new ways to stop excessive bleeding in a wide range of applications.

Current method of stopping excessive bleeding or the flow of blood are messy and inefficient, many of them leaking after a period of time. Researchers have vastly improved upon these devices with new hydrogel casts that are leak proof and biomaterials to protect patients with high levels of risk for bleeding.

STB, a hydrogel cast, is made using gelatin molecules with small disc of silicate nanoplatelets to promote blood clotting reactions. When STB is administered through a needle, the gel solidifies and creates a barrier to stop bleeding. In tests conducted on animals, STB was able to form casts that did not leak or break, making them an effective tool in stopping excessive bleeding.

"This new approach to vascular embolization is based on a hydrogel composite with phase properties we can reliably control with mechanical pressure. It completely blocks vessels in situations where other methods can fail such as in vascular areas that are highly convoluted or subject to unusual blood pressures, and, importantly, it still works when normal blood coagulation is impaired like in patients receiving blood-thinners or suffering from an intrinsic inability to efficiently form blood clots," said Ali Khademhosseini, PhD, who is an Associate Faculty member of the Wyss Institute, and a Professor at the Harvard-MIT's Division of Health Sciences and Technology and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Advanced biomaterials are also making a scene with the help of researchers from Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Designed for patients at high risk of bleeding during surgery, these thin biomaterials are an alternative for the treatment of vascular bleeding which is currently using the outdated and dangerous coil embolization.

"Coils require your body's ability to create a clot in order to create that occlusion,” said Rahmi Oklu, MD, PhD, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. “Our shear-thinning biomaterial, regardless of how anticoagulated the patient may be, will still create that occlusion.

The biomaterial is injected through and endovascular catheter to form a solid cast of the vessel and prevent any bleeding. It is easy to implement and visible on CT and MRI. Researchers hope these biomaterials will treat a variety of ailments including vascular malformations, varicose veins, aneurysms and vascular injuries.