Clot promoter cuts surgical bleeding. (Biomedicine).Blood banks face a perpetual supply shortage, but a clot-promoting agent known as recombinant activated factor VII factor VII n. A factor in the clotting of blood that forms a complex with tissue thromboplastin and calcium to activate the prothrombinase, thus acting to accelerate the conversion of prothrombin to thrombin. (FVIIa) might offer a new means to staunch the demand for blood. When administered during surgery, the lab-generated enzyme can reduce a patient's bleeding and need for transfusions, a new study indicates. Dutch surgeons tested the drug or a placebo in 36 men undergoing removal of cancerous or seriously enlarged prostate Enlarged Prostate Definition A non-cancerous condition that affects many men past 50 years of age, enlarged prostate makes urinating more difficult by narrowing the urethra, a tube running from the bladder through the prostate gland. glands. The surgery often causes substantial bleeding. Early in their operations, 24 of the patients received injections loaded with either of two amounts of FVIIa. The other 12 volunteers got a sham False; without substance. A sham Pleading is one that is good in form but is so clearly false in fact that it does not raise any genuine issue. injection. Neither the patients nor their surgeons knew which treatment went to whom. The patients who got FVIIa lost less blood during surgery and needed fewer transfusions than their placebo-treated counterparts. None of those receiving the higher dose of FVIIa needed a blood transfusion blood transfusion, transfer of blood from one person to another, or from one animal to another of the same species. Transfusions are performed to replace a substantial loss of blood and as supportive treatment in certain diseases and blood disorders. , while 38 percent of those receiving the lower dose and 58 percent of those getting the placebo required extra blood to get through their operations. There were no negative consequences from the treatment, Marcel Levi of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues report in the Jan. 18 Lancet. FVIIa is considered safe for patients with blood clotting blood clotting, process by which the blood coagulates to form solid masses, or clots. In minor injuries, small oval bodies called platelets, or thrombocytes, tend to collect and form plugs in blood vessel openings. disorders, but it hasn't been widely tested in other people.--B.H. |
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