The Future of Wound Healing: Autologous Patient Gels

Seems like yesterday that those of us with gaping lacerations were told to “walk it off.” These days, instead of just using sutures, surgeons have been using a natural fibrin glue to close up wounds and secure fractured bones. The next step in the process is actually using a patient’s own wound-healing cells like platelets to pseudo-naturally speed up the process.
A sample of blood is taken from the patient and the red blood cells are removed. The platelets are concentrated and when combined with thrombin, form a very strong gel that is not too different from the body’s natural healing process.
Pilot studies are springing up all over the place demonstrating reduced wound healing times, decreased post-operative pain, and even increased success in medical device implants (our favorite). As soon as the technique of preparation is standardized and we get some randomized clinical control trials, we should be seeing this technology in practice very soon.
Read about a pilot study at Reuters…
Check out a good review on the subject here…
More wound healing goodness…