<story><title>Startup creates VetiGel, a plant based polymer that seals wounds in seconds</title><url>http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-11-startup-vetigel-based-polymer-wounds.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>robbiep</author><text>So a few people mention that this is a really revolutionary product and someone suggests that it should be in every first aid kit.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;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.&lt;p&gt;The point is that bleeding is very rarely life threatening, and te couple of applications where is would be are military and intra operative.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;No-one needs this in their first aid kit, and until it is approved for use in surgery I don&amp;#x27;t think we will save any lives with it, but it is still a very cool product.</text></comment>
<story><title>Startup creates VetiGel, a plant based polymer that seals wounds in seconds</title><url>http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-11-startup-vetigel-based-polymer-wounds.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>astazangasta</author><text>Isn&amp;#x27;t this what cyanoacrylate (crazy glue) was invented for? Battlefield wound stitching?</text></comment>