Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Preventing Bacterial Infection of Wounds by Adding Chitin - Science

The biggest risk of surgery apart from the obvious is post-surg infection and probably people are more afraid of the potential for infection than regarding the surgery itself due to widespread scares such as MRSA, etc.  However, there's nothing useful in observing the scare exists without presenting something to do about it.  (Science Daily:  Novel antibacterial wound cover could prevent thousands of infections each year)

Novel really doesn't tell us much so let's get more novel than that.

A new type of wound dressing could improve thousands of people's lives, by preventing them from developing infections. The dressing, a type of compression held in place by a bandage, uses an antibacterial substance formed from the shells of crustaceans like shrimps. It is described in a paper published in the May issue of Radiation Physics and Chemistry.

- SD

There you go.   Now we're getting novel in preventing infection with shrimp.  Sure, we know you had the idea first but, mate, you should have written it down and told someone, see.


The protective dressing was developed by Dr. Radoslaw Wach and his colleagues from Lodz University of Technology in Poland. Their innovation builds on a type of dressing that has been around for centuries. By providing moisture to a wound, hydrogel dressings can speed up aspects of healing and cool the wound down. The dressings are durable and elastic, meaning they can easily adapt to the shape of the affected body part.

Dr. Wach and his colleagues adapted the hydrogel dressing manufacturing technique to make a version of the classic dressing with an added benefit. The team did this by incorporating an antibacterial and biodegradable substance called chitosan, extracted from the shells of crustaceans, within the dressing itself.

- SD

These aren't people who 'think outside the box' since people who think like that never put their heads inside a box in the first place.


Dr. Wach hopes the new dressings will one day be used as a replacement for classic hydrogels. "Since wound healing in severe cases may take a long time -- up to several weeks -- the probability of bacteria-mediated infection is high," he added. "Our novel hydrogel dressing could, therefore, prevent many such infections and avoid serious complications."

- SD

Regardless of what you think of shrimp and I've always had some allergy to them, the potential reduction in infections is significant not only in terms of general health but in reducing the hospital fear factor since MRSA definitely scares me more than surgery.  My attitude is probably not much different from many on that since I can take the cut but please, please, don't let it get sick after you do it.  The cut will hurt but MRSA can make be dead and that distinction is acutely clear to many of us.

It looks like shrimp come to the rescue and thanks for that assist, little shellfish creatures.

No comments: