MIT’s Nano-Bio-Bandage Can Stop Your Bleeding Almost Immediately

Thrombin A clotting agent already found in the blood, 

thrombin is being layered onto sponges that can stop 

bleeding almost immediately. via Wikimedia

PopSci - Bleeding out on the battlefield–far from the trauma wards and triage units that might save their lives–is a scenario that soldiers simply have to live with.

But thanks to a nanoscale breakthrough at MIT, the chances of it happening could be significantly reduced. Researchers there have created a nanoscale coating that can stop bleeding nearly instantaneously using a clotting agent already found naturally in blood.

That agent, called thrombin, is coated onto sponges that can be easily packed by soldiers and field medics (or civilian medical personnel for that matter) and shaped to fit just about any kind of wound. Those pre-coated sponges are a pretty big improvement over tourniquets and gauze, which are limited in their ability to stop every kind of bleeding. Tourniquets obviously can’t be used on many parts of the body (the neck is a good example), and other glues and chemically treated bandages designed for dressing battlefield wounds come with their own complications and shortcomings.               More