Could carbon dioxide replace antibiotics in surgery?
February 12th, 2009 - 5:36 pm ICT by IANSWashington, Feb 12 (IANS) Flooding wounds with carbon dioxide gas during surgery could protect the site from airborne bacteria and also suffocate germs, according to a study.
CO2 is already used for this purpose in the food packaging business. Humidified CO2 would also keep the wound warm and moist, which should reduce tissue damage and speed-up healing.
Study authors Mikael Persson and Jan van der Linden of Karolinska Institute in Sweden, have already tested their idea in the lab and the next step should be a proper clinical trial on humans.
The study explained that wound infection is a serious surgical complication leading to longer stays in hospital and greater risk of death. Problems include bacterial contamination of the wound, drying of body tissues and heat loss.
The study has also been adjudged the winner of the 2008 David Horrobin Prize for medical theory. The prize judge was Sir David Weatherall, emeritus regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, said a Karolinska Institute release.
Sir David commented, “I chose this because the hypothesis revolves around a very unusual approach to an extremely common and important clinical problem and the authors seem to have gone someway to defining the route to which it could be tested by appropriate clinical trial.”
These findings were published in Medical Hypotheses.
-Indo-Asian News Service
St/vt
- Scientists illuminate cell pathway key to insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes - Feb 25, 2011
- Blast of sound can speed up wound healing - Nov 23, 2010
- New technique to help men become fathers post chemotherapy - Mar 15, 2011
- Novel hydrogel regenerates burnt skin tissues - Dec 14, 2011
- Positive outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis linked to early diagnosis - Nov 24, 2010
- Prizewinning software may reduce number of breast cancer cases missed - Jan 18, 2010
- Promising new approach to treat diabetic wounds, chronic ulcers - Feb 09, 2011
- Sunless tanning spray may help heal post-surgery wounds - Jun 01, 2010
- India-Cuba joint discovery in biomedical sciences wins award - Jul 19, 2011
- Over cleanliness could wreck immune system! - Mar 23, 2012
- Stroke leaves victims exposed to malnutrition risk - Feb 17, 2012
- Boffins 'reprogram' adult mouse fat cells into stem cells - Jul 27, 2010
- Salmonella could be used to fight cancer - Mar 10, 2011
- Boffins discover control mechanism behind autoimmune diseases - May 05, 2010
- Karnataka denies ban on clinical drug trials - May 04, 2011
Tags: airborne bacteria, asian news, bacterial contamination, body tissues, carbon dioxide gas, david horrobin, david weatherall, death problems, food packaging, heat loss, karolinska institute, medical hypotheses, medical theory, regius professor, sir david, study authors, tissue damage, university of oxford, van der linden, wound infection
