New Material Stops Bleeding in People Taking Blood Thinners

Bioengineered material developed to rapidly stop bleeding in patients on blood thinners
“To improve strategies for reducing blood loss, a team led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, developed a porous material that maximizes blood absorption and effectively activates clotting mechanisms, even in patients on anticoagulation or antiplatelet medication. Findings, published in PNAS, show that the bleed-stopping material, or “hemostat,” halted bleeding within an average of about five minutes in patients on anticoagulants who underwent cardiac catheterization, a dramatic reduction from traditional compression methods that can take over two hours. . . . . Chitosan is already used in some hemostats: its positively charged surface is known to strongly attract negatively charged platelets and fibrinogen, the two major components of a blood clot. However, contrary to previous assumptions, the researchers discovered that chitosan also directly stimulates blood clotting by activating the TLR-2 [toll-like receptor 2] clotting pathway, making it a viable mechanism for increasing blood clotting even in patients on anticoagulants.” MORE
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