Chemists develop nanoscale bioabsorbable wound dressing

Scientists at Texas A&M University are harnessing the combined power of organic nanomaterials-based chemistry and a natural product found in crustacean exoskeletons to help bring emergency medicine one step closer to a viable solution for mitigating blood loss, from the hospital to the battlefield.

Hemorrhage is a leading cause of death in traumatic injuries, ranking fourth in the United States at a total cost of $671 billion in 2013. Working with an interdisciplinary team involving collaborators from Assiut University in Egypt, Texas A&M chemist Karen Wooley's research group has developed a bioabsorbable wound dressing that builds on the already proven blood-flow-staunching properties of chitosan – a natural material widely used in commercial wound dressings – by taking them nanoscale to boost their effectiveness and impact.

Wooley's team, led by Texas A&M chemistry Ph.D. student and NASA Space Technology Research Fellow Eric Leonhardt, successfully encapsulated highly entangled nanofibers of chitosan within a sugar-based hydrogel that dissolves in as little as seven days, leaving behind a significantly larger available wound-healing surface while eliminating the need for subsequent physical removal.

"Bioabsorbable wound dressings that can be applied and left in the injury site are desirable for a variety of blood loss scenarios – for example, to control bleeding in traumatic injuries and to save lives on both civilian and military fronts," said Leonhardt.