Hemostatic gauzes

Conventionally, compression using tourniquets and/or gauze has been the principal treatment for the control of bleeding. These measures have not been particularly effective. Tourniquets have been used since Roman times to reduce bleeding by means of external pressure, which compresses the veins/capiUaries and slows down the flow of blood from a wound. However, the use of tourniquets is limited to certain parts of the body (such as limbs) excluding areas like head, neck, chest or abdomen. One of the earliest topical hemostatic agents was cotton, in the form of gauze pads, capable of... 

Cellulose is a major naturally occurring storage and structural polymer in plants. Cellulose and its derivatives have been widely investigated for various biomedical applications. Although pure cellulose is not readily resorbable in the body, it can be chemically modified to cause chain scission of the structure and hence be made bioresorbable. Oxidized cellulose is one such example. Surgicel is a commercial oxidized cellulose, which is available in the form of gauze pads for use as resorbable hemostatic wound dressings. 

Both carboxymethylated cellulose (CMC) and oxidized cellulose (oxycellulose) have been utilized in wound management either as a constituent of hydrocolloid wound dressings (14) which produce high absorbency or as a preferred hemostatic agent in surgery (15), respectively. We have investigated both carboxymethylated and dialdehyde cotton gauze in order to assess their effect on elastase sequestration. 

---