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Less Bleeding On The Battlefield

Historically, about 50 percent of combat deaths have been the result of hemorrhage, or uncontrollable blood loss. Previous efforts to reduce bleeding on the battlefield have been unsuccessful, but a new product derived from microscopic plants that live in the ocean may provide the solution. With ONR support, Marine Polymer Technologies, a Danvers, Mass., company, has identified a compound with the ability to induce blood clot formation. The compound, poly-n-acetyl glucosamine, is effective at stopping blood loss from severely bleeding wounds even though it does not contain any of the proteins that are normally associated with clot formation, such as fibrin or thrombin.

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