MASSIVE USE OF OXIDIZED GAUZE IN HEMORRHAGE FROM A MAJOR VESSEL

Since the preparation of oxidized gauze by Kenyon,¹ there has been an increasing use of this hemostatic agent wherever bleeding cannot be controlled by the ordinary methods of ligature or suture. Experimental work² in which small amounts of the material were buried in parenchymatous and supporting tissues of animals showed the gauze to be completely absorbable. There was, moreover, but slight reaction to the gauze, since there could be seen only minimal proliferation of glial and connective tissue. In no case were adhesions produced. However, when the gauze was placed in serous cavities such as the peritoneum, cysts were sometimes formed which were eventually resorbed.³ Putnum⁴ employed oxidized gauze impregnated with thrombin in thirty neurosurgical operations and reported gratifying results.

According to Frantz and associates,³ oxidized gauze has an affinity for hemoglobin. As soon as it is soaked by blood, it turns into a brown