Medicine: Gelatin for Bleeding

The operating-table hazard that surgeons dread most is persistent bleeding. Last week the Journal of the American Medical Association reported successful experiments with a magical new substance which stops bleeding almost quicker than a surgeon can say hemorrhagiparous (hemorrhage-causing). The substance: gelatin sponge.

Surgeon Hilger P. Jenkins and three colleagues at the University of Chicago School of Medicine put the sponge to the severest tests on 80 dogs. They cut the heart, liver, veins, arteries, then capped the gushing wounds with pads of dry gelatin sponge. In almost every case, bleeding stopped in a few minutes. In less drastic operations on 140 human patients, the sponge was just as effective.

Besides stopping bleeding (by reacting with blood to form tiny clots inside the sponge), gelatin has two important surgical advantages over conventional gauze pads: 1) it helps wounds heal, 2) it can be left in the body, because it is absorbable.* Said Dr. Jenkins: the new material should make possible heart and cancer operations hitherto all but ruled out because of the great loss of blood.

Another prediction: that gelatin sponges would become standard equipment in family medicine chests as first-aid dressings for wounds and nosebleed.

*Other promising materials with similar properties: fibrin foam, soluble cellulose.