HemCon Bandage

[GreyWanderer]

http://www.hemcon.com/

Can anyone explain exactly how this works? How does it help to attract the blood? Doesn’t that happen anyway?

[toadspittle]

The bandages were developed by HemCon, Inc., which develops and markets technologies to control severe bleeding for traumatic skin and organ injuries. Gregory, who co-founded HemCon, says chitosan interacts with our blood cells because its molecules carry a positive charge. “The outer membrane of a red blood cell has a negative charge," he explains, "and opposite charges attract. The red cell is attracted to the positively-charged chitosan, and when it touches, it fuses and forms a blood clot.” When a clot forms, the bleeding stops. And unlike a regular bandage, which slips off when wet, the HemCon bandage becomes adhesive and sticks to the wet wound site, sealing and stabilizing it.

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218391915

Wounds do clot, but if you have a huge wound, you can bleed to death before the clot can form (because the wound area is too big). I guess regular gauze just absorbs and slows down blood loss, rather than helping to form an adhesive seal like this does.

Funny that chitosan (the key ingredient) is also used in all those quack fat-absorbing diet supplements.

[AskNott]

Don’t confuse chitosan with CheetoSan®, a cheezy snack for the Asian market.