Soldiers in Iraq Saved by $85 Shrimp Bandages

Imagine a bullet puncturing your heart. Now, imagine a bandage that could seal the wound.

The bandage you have imagined is real, and it is in use by soldiers in Iraq today. It is made from a product commonly found in shrimp shells, called chitosan.

The bandage carries a price tag of less than $90. Of course, this is extremely expensive compared to a drugstore band-aid, but it's also important to remember that a band-aid cannot heal wounds to your internal organs.

So, how does it work? Why does this shrimp band-aid work any differently than a gauze bandage? The secret is in the chitosan. When it comes into contact with blood it interacts with blood cells. Since chitosan carries a positive charge, it attracts negatively-charged red blood cells to it, and facilitates the clotting process. Gauze, the traditional alternative, simply absorbs blood like a towel will absorb the water from a leak in your plumbing. Once the towel is soaked, you need to replace it with a new towel, and you need to repeat the process until the water to the pipe can be cut off. Chitosan, by contrast, effectively plugs the leak, working to temporarily repair the pipe itself until more intensive repair work can be undertaken.

In addition to its power to clot blood, chitosan has captured the interest of scientists because it seems to protect shrimp from bacterial infections. Just as it binds with red blood cells, it also attracts negatively-charged membranes to bacteria. So, while putting on a shrimp bandage may sound a little un-hygenic, it's actually not so bad for your body.

One of the primary reasons why this bandage has been produced for use by Iraq soldiers is because wounds from modern weapons have been more severe than from the Vietnam War. High velocity wounds, which greatly damage blood cells and soft tissue close to a bullet's point of entry, are becoming much more common than conventional bullet wounds. For this reason, in 2005, the Army initiated purchase contracts and research grants worth $29 million, so that it could distribute these bandages to every soldier in Iraq.

Fittingly enough, NASA has also decided to run tests on how chitosan bandages tolerate conditions in space. Essentially, the purpose of these tests is to demonstrate whether chitosan bandages will be effective controlling bacterial infections space, where astronauts are more susceptible to poor health if travelling for prolonged periods.

While a chitosan bandage is not something you will probably ever keep around your house, it is something you may want to be kept around your local hospital. Encouragingly, many doctors agree that it is a useful necessity. In an interview with Medscape, Colonel Paul Cordts, MD affirmed, "I think the hemostatic bandage is an advance that will be taken up by the civilian world, subsequent to the military."

So, instead of just clogging up your arteries with the fat from buttery shrimp, someday you can get your arteries patched up with a shrimp bandage.

Sources:
"Battlefield Protocols May Move to Civilian World," by Richard Hyer: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/545903
"Shrimp-shell Wound Healant to Get Space Test," by Jeff Hecht: http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12361-shrimpshell-wound-healant-to-get-space-test.html
"Shrimp-based Bandages Save Lives," Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends: http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/2004/08/28.html