Efficacy of chitosan-based local hemostatic complex in modeling arterial injury in an acute experiment in vivo

Uncontrolled bleeding is one of the most current problems in both hospital and military field surgery. There is a wide range of available hemostatic agents in modern medical practice to solve this challenging issue.

Objective - to study the effectiveness of arterial bleeding control using a hemostatic powder composition based on a chitosan-collagen complex.

Materials and methods. The experiment was conducted on 45 male Wistar rats, which were equally divided into three groups, such as a control group (modelling arterial bleeding without using the drug), an experimental group (a produced composition based on a chitosan-collagen complex), and a comparison group (Celox hemostatic powder). The animals underwent abdominal aortotomy followed by non-hermetic suturing of the wall. Then hemostatic powder was applied to the damaged vessel wall followed with tamponade. During the study it was determined the volume of blood loss, the time to complete cessation of bleeding and the volume of powder expended. Animals were withdrawn from the experiment immediately after the intervention and manipulation. It was used a section of the abdominal aorta in the frame of intact tissues as the autopsy specimen for modeling and exposure to samples from the study groups. Histological examination was performed using standard methods. The statistical significance of differences between groups was determined using the Mann-Whitney test (p≤0.05).

Results. The experimental results revealed a significantly lower blood loss in the experimental group compared to the comparison group, which was 58.82% lower. Another important indicator was the time required to completely stop bleeding, which was 37.5% shorter in the experimental group compared to the comparison group. The third parameter studied was the required volume of the expended powder, which was also significantly lower for 45.45%, so it also demonstrated the higher efficacy of the developed composition compared to its analogue and control.

Conclusion. Based on the obtained results, as well as the histological examination, it can be concluded that the developed powder composition is an effective hemostatic agent for vascular wall damage, required further studies to confirm its safety.

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