The Effectiveness of Ankaferd Blood Stopper in the Management of Traumatic Bleeding

Abstract

Introduction: The objective of this study was to prospectively compare the effectiveness of Ankaferd Blood Stopper (ABS) with dry sponges in cessation of bleeding in adult trauma cases with external bleeding due to extremity lacerations. Methods: The study was conducted on patients with bleeding associated with extremity lacerations. All consecutive patients presented to the emergency department of a high-volume training hospital in Istanbul were recruited within the study period. Forty patients (group I) were compressed with ABS-soaked wet sponges, and 40 control patients (group II) were treated with compression using dry sterile sponges. The compresses were briefly removed at 1-min intervals and bleeding status was checked. Wounds were monitored for 0.5 h for bleeding recurrence. The patients were followed up for infection, and date of suture removal was noted. Results: There were 26 male (65%) patients in the ABS group and the mean age was 42.9 ± 12.8 (range 20-72) years. In the control group, there were 24 male (60%) patients with a mean age of 45.4 ± 15.1 years (range 18-70). The bleeding duration was 2.1 ± 1.4 min in the ABS group and 2.7 ± 1.6 min in the control group. In the ABS group, bleeding duration was statistically significantly shorter than that of the control group (p = 0.001). No significant difference was noted in infection development and time taken to remove sutures. Primary suturing had to be performed in one patient in the ABS group and two patients in the control group. Among the remaining patients, bleeding recurred in six patients (15%) in the ABS group and 19 (47.5%) in the control group (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Ankaferd Blood Stopper appears to be useful in controlling bleeding due to lacerations on the extremities in adults. Bleeding was stopped statistically significantly faster and bleeding recurred significantly less frequently in the ABS-treated group. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials. gov identifier: NCT03871452.