According to statistics, more than 4 million people die after surgery every year worldwide. Postoperative complications, such as bleeding and infection, are the main causes of postoperative death. Postoperative bleeding has always been the most common surgical complication, accounting for about 25% of all surgeries. Therefore, timely and effective hemostasis is the key to reducing the risk of postoperative death and improving postoperative recovery.
At present, postoperative hemostasis usually adopts traditional hemostasis methods such as direct pressure, suture, use of hemostatic bandages or tourniquets, and electrocoagulation. However, these traditional surgical hemostasis methods can cause direct muscle and nerve tissue damage, introduce foreign objects into the wound, cause postoperative complications, and waste precious anesthesia time. Compared with traditional hemostasis methods, absorbable hemostatic materials are more expensive and less recognized, but they have greater advantages in certain surgical operations. The use of hemostatic products can reduce the number of patients who need blood transfusions, shorten the length of hospital stay for patients, shorten the length of surgery, reduce the rate of re-visits, and reduce the incidence of infection and complications.
Main mechanism of hemostasis
Hemostasis is the process of controlling bleeding at the site of injury, and the ruptured blood vessels are closed by the formation of blood clots to stop bleeding. The mechanism of hemostasis involves platelets and soluble coagulation factors, which are always present in the blood in an inactive form, ready to be activated within seconds of injury. There are two pathways of activation for coagulation: the extrinsic pathway, which is triggered by tissue injury, and the intrinsic pathway, which involves multiple factors within the blood vessels and is a positive feedback loop that amplifies coagulation. All hemostatic agents aim to work by mimicking, promoting, or bypassing specific steps of the coagulation cascade.