Comparison of the Efficacy of Two Local Haemostatic Agents

BACKGROUND In modern life, the incidence of traumatic injuries increases daily. In accidents which lead to trauma, massive bleeding is the main cause of death. Nowadays, many different chemical and herbal agents are available for quick control of bleeding. OBJECTIVES In this study, we compare the effectiveness of two different types of chemical agents for control of bleeding in an animal model. MATERIALS AND METHODS This research was done comparing two hemostaticagents- "Chitohem" and "Quikclot". Ten healthy IR Iranian sheep were chosen and were blindly divided into two different groups. In each of the groups, one of the aforementioned agents was to be applied. First, four main limb arteries of the sheep were dissected linearly and after measuring the volume of bleeding in the first 60 seconds, the chemical agent was applied to the site of bleeding. After that, the duration of bleeding, the volume of bleeding and the secondary blood pressure were measured and compared. RESULTS There were no significant differences between the primary features of the animals in two groups (Weight, Baseline Systolic Blood Pressure and Pre-treatment Blood loss). In dependent quantities such as the volume of bleeding after the usage of chemical agents, secondary systolic blood pressure, the results were in favor of "Quick Clot" (P < 0.001 for volume of bleeding, P = 0.008 for secondary blood pressures and P < 0.001 for the necessary time for the bleeding to stop). CONCLUSIONS In this study, it seems that activity of "Quikclot" in cessation of bleeding of large arterial vessels was slightly better than "Chitohem". Due to limitations which we had in this study, further studies are necessary to show the actual differences between these agents and their side effects.