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Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Shrimp Bandages See Wartime Use

This is pretty darn cool if you ask me.  Of course, I wonder how bad a wound will it help clot up and also, does it smell like shrimp? :)

hemcon_shrimp.jpg imageIt was a couple of years ago, at least, that we first heard about bandages being developed out of chitosan and now it seems they've been put into service in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Chitosan, derived from shrimp shells, carries a positive charge and bonds with a wound's red blood cells (which are negatively charged) to form a clot in as short as 30 seconds. Made exclusively by HemCon, the bandages use shrimp shells from Iceland, are processed and freeze-dried in New Hampshire, assembled and packaged in Oregon, and sterilized in California. No word on when shrimp bandages will be available to consumers.

Read - Shrimp shells help save soldiers' lives [Chron via DailyGadget]


[Gizmodo]

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