THE fer-de-lance pit viper is not an animal you would want to meet unexpectedly. It is aggressive, unpredictable and fond of getting the drop on its prey: literally, from the branches of trees. Its bite, which turns blood into something with the consistency of jam, is fatal if not treated immediately. Terrible as its venom is, though, it may have a use. Jeffrey Hartgerink, a chemist at Rice University, in Houston, Texas, thinks it could be just the thing to stop post-operative bleeding.
Loss of blood is an inevitable consequence of surgery. At the moment it is dealt with by a combination of the body’s natural clotting mechanisms and a variety of physical barriers designed to stanch blood flow and give those clotting mechanisms time to act. These barriers include the simple application of pressure to a wound, various foams and adhesives that create a more permanent seal, and experimental treatments using substances called hydrogel which consists of fragments of protein laced together to trap water molecules, and which are reckoned particularly effective at blocking wounds up.
For many people, these are enough. But...Continue reading
Source: Science and technology http://ift.tt/1O2dXaQ
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