Potato Powder Stops Bleeding, May Help Surgery 39
Big E writes "'A powder made from the common potato appears to help blood to clot, closing minor cuts and aiding surgical procedures, new research suggests'. Reuters story is here.
According to the company that produces it, Medafor Inc. , it is "Effective even in areas of profuse bleeding". That's a bit more than closing minor cuts and they are seeking approval for use during chest and intestinal surgeries. Maybe this will prove to be the biggest thing since the Band-Aid maybe even revolutionize emergency & combat medicine." Here are some Scanning Electron Micrographs of this sweet potato in action, too.
Well... (Score:1)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Informative)
Pretty damn good. That's why nobody's talking about applying potato to an open cut. They're talking about using a powder composed of little particles-- they call 'em beads-- that soak up water. What these particles actually do is reduce the volume of a mass of blood, allowing the platelets to form a clot more quickly than they otherwise could.
This is based, incidentally, on exactly the same mechanism that causes cornstarch to thicken a soup. Cornstarch is a powder made up of what are basically tiny starch particles. These tiny particles absorb water, thickening any liquid to which they're added. This stuff works the same way, only on a much smaller scale.
Mod Up (Score:1)
Re:Well... (Score:1)
It would seem to me that the super-absorbent gell that is used in diapers, tampons, and as a soil replacement/enhancer would do the same thing, perhaps better.
But the potato extract may be more quickly biodegradable.
I wonder if the MPH would be useful in any of those other products?
Re:Well... (Score:1)
Re:Well... (Score:2)
Actually I used to do a lot of hiking and we always kept a sanitary napkin or two in the first aid kit to apply to major wounds. Fortunately never had the opportunity to try them out. The form factor of a sanitary napkin is much easier to apply since unlike diapers and tampons they are flat. Also, since the big toxic shock scare of the 80's you can be pretty sure that they have been sterilized to a limited if not hospital autoclave standard.
As to the potato starch, we usually brought instant mashed potatoes with us for dinner anyway (great for thickening stews or for an instant add-water side dish that's much cheaper than freeze-dried meals from camping stores), now we can just bring that and leave the sanitary pads at home
Ouch. (Score:2, Funny)
What are the limitations? (Score:2)
Re:What are the limitations? (Score:1)
As a former paramedic who left medicine to pursue a more lucrative career (in software, of course) and is now going back to EMT school as a hobby, I'm seeing how things have changed in prehospital care over the last 10-15 years. If the trend continues, as it has since the inception of EMS in the US, EMTs may be able to use something like this in the field within the next decade, if it's proved to be more effective than simply bandagind wounds until some doctor can suture them. Unfortunately, it still won't help that much, as multi-system trauma can involve just as much internal bleeding as external bleeding, which cannot be handled in a pre-hospital setting. Nonetheless, if the research is good, we may see this on ambulances just like we now have Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) which were only a thought when I left medicine, and are now taught to basic EMTs and even the public because the research showed they saved lives.
Re:What are the limitations? (Score:2)
Re:What are the limitations? (Score:1)
Yes, in a case like that, something like this may prove useful. If this is shown to be a good adjunct to direct pressure and lots of bandages then it may find its way into such situations. Perhaps even standard issue in first aid kits.
It would not as useful in something like a motor vehicle accident with internal injuries, which can usually only be dealt with by a surgeon.
However, my original post just meant to clarify that it would not be a trauma cureall, and also that medicine changes over time, sometimes quickly. For instance, in my lifetime I've seen the birth of:
Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
CPR
Paramedics
trauma centers
clot-busting drugs (thrombolytics) used to treat stroke and heart attacks.
I apologize if my earlier post seemed to be emphasizing the negative.
Re:What are the limitations? (Score:2)
Not an issue, I understood the context, I just wanted to make the point that it could still help even when it wasn't a complete cure/solution.
The progress in all technologies is amazing when you really think about it, medical tech. included. Even though there are still a lot of problems way beyond current medical science, the basic science is uncovering the seeds of understanding biological systems in ways never before possible. Computers are no small part of it either as we enter the age where you can't do much science without processing a lot more information than humanly possible.
What was the title of the TV show (Rescue 51, I think?) that introduced many of us to the idea of EMTs saving lives in the field? They could barely touch a patient before establishing a link to the doctors at the trauma center, and now they have CPR machines that almost anyone can use.
My 'extreme' sport is sailing a 30 foot catamaran around on Lake Michigan, so I'm interested in advanced first aid stuff (when I can afford the supplies and equipment). So far we haven't ventured beyond sight of land, so the risks are lower, but I try to be as prepared for problems as practical.
Re:What are the limitations? (Score:1)
That would be Emergency!. I think it still occasionally shows on TVLand. According to a recent video I saw on the birth of EMS, when Emergency! aired there were only six paramedics certified nationwide. I watched the show as a kid. Later on in life, a friend of mine said he was taking an EMT course and asked if I wanted to join him. It was 1985 and I didn't know what an EMT was! Of course, once I did know, I took the course, and later in my career went on to be a paramedic. It's amazing when you think what Emergency! did to educate the public about how rescue personal now had medical training. Prior to 1967, the only thing an ambulance was good for was getting you to the hospital *really fast*. Now, a paramedic can do just about everything a Cardiac Care Unit can do. So if you're having a heart attack, there's much to be done. Major trauma calls, on the other hand, are still just "scoop and screw" or "bag and drag", depending on the area of the US you're in. What this means is that even at the paramedic level, nothing much can be done for the patient other that establishing and maintaining an airway, breathing, circulation (CPR/stop the bleeding) and get the patient to the hospital *really fast*. That's a bit of an oversimplification, but the truth is these patients need surgeons to live. Because of this, many places now have the means to airlift patients to an appropriate trauma center. This is great, and much of it is because of the light that went on in people's (and politician's) minds when they saw Emergency! with Johnny and Roy saving lives.
My 'extreme' sport is sailing a 30 foot catamaran around on Lake Michigan, so I'm interested in advanced first aid stuff
Why not take an EMT course? It's only 110 hours, and doesn't require any previous training other than CPR, which many courses will include. You might want to pick up something in the way of water rescue, too, if that's where you spend most of your time. It's really a lot of fun to take the classes if you have the interest, even if you don't plan on doing it for a living. And who knows? Maybe in a few years the magic potato powder will be standard issue. :-)
Idaho (Score:2)
Somehow that doesn't sound right.
I can see it now (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I can see it now (Score:1)
or somthing
Re:I can see it now (Score:2, Funny)
"It is very effective, and it appears that there are no side effects."
Except that some of the test subjects later reported being able to replace their noses with their ears. [hasbropreschool.com] http://www.hasbropreschool.com/mrpotatohead/
won't help arterial bleeding (Score:5, Informative)
The thing about agents like QuikClot and MPH is that they're not really that useful in catastrophic traumas. Blood loss due to superficial injuries is almost always controllable in the field; in the worse case, in which a patient has suffered lots and lots of minor injuries, the blood loss is sufficiently slow that the risk of hypovolemic shock is almost nil.
The real danger in trauma situations comes when an artery is damaged or severed. Clotting agents like these won't help in those cases. You don't stop an artery from pumping by clotting. You stop it by clamping the shit out of the little fucker until you can get it tied off or anastomosed.
So in those cases where blood loss is really life-threatening, these sorts of substances won't help. I'm sure they've got valid medical uses, but they seem more like band-aids or bactine than a real life-saving medical tool.
Just my two cents. I'm not a doctor, but I play one on tee vee.
To think of this knowledge I was denied... (Score:1)
Cool (Score:2)
What's the next cool thing that Pringles can be used ?
In related news... (Score:1, Funny)
Dr. Bubba Jones, chief research scientist at said university, declined to mention why so many of his team's studies have focused around redheads. His only comment was "Now listen, there ain't no correlation 'tween the color of mah' neck and the color of mah' test subjects' hair!"
-1 Offtopic? Not Necessarily (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:-1 Offtopic? Not Necessarily (Score:1)
Back on topic, I saw a few years back that researchers were looking into using potato to help burns victims, a thin sliver of frozen spud is very similar to frozen skin, so they were able to put bits of spud on to the naked wound and it would do the trick to seal in the good stuff and keep out the bad stuff.
Eventually real skin grows back, which is quite re-assuring, although turning green upon exposure to sunlight would be a great excuse to stay inside.
who? (Score:1)
Re:who? (Score:1)
DIY (Score:2)
So how much better (apart from being sterilized) is this compared to the stuff you can buy in the supermarket (whose particles are spherical to some degree) [uni-hamburg.de]?
Sugar Too (Score:1)
At least according to one of those 'how to fight off a shark and leap from a motorcycle to a car' books I read...
Sugar/Honey (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know about the clotting effect, but sugar (and even better, honey) can help prevent infection in wounds. It works the same way that concentrated sugar and salt solutions work to preserve fruits and vegetables without boiling/sterilizing in preserves and pickles. The solution MUST be sufficiently concentrated to prevent bacterial growth. Pouring salt on a wound would be just too painful, but sugar and honey both work.
Honey is even better for treating wounds than sugar for (at least) two reasons: It's already a superaturated sugar solution right out of the jar, and it contains, in addition to some interesting sugars (mostly levulose, maltose), some natural antibiotics/bacterial growth inhibitors.
It's not just for toast and tea!
Re:Sugar/Honey (Score:1)
Re:Sugar/Honey (Score:1)
Next thing you'll be telling me is that some fungus that grows on damp bread will lead to a magic bullet against disease after some researcher breaks the health and safety rules by eating a sandwich while he's preparing the next batch of growth medium.
Hemophelia (Score:1)
Gosh Im hungry. (Score:1)