Catechol modification of non-woven chitosan gauze for enhanced hemostatic efficacy

Development of efficient hemostatic gauze is critical to increasing survival rate by quick bleeding control of life-threatening hemorrhage. Herein, a novel chitosan non-woven hemostatic gauze is made by slightly surface modification with a special catechol compound, i.e. 3-(9,11,13-pentadecatrienyl)-1,2-benzenediol with a long side hydrophobic alkyl chain. Its wettability, interaction with red blood cell and platelet, and hemostatic efficacy on rat injuries are evaluated. This chitosan-catechol gauze demonstrates impressive hemostatic performances on rat femoral artery and liver laceration injury models (blood loss of this modified chitosan gauze is less than 17% of that of pristine chitosan gauze). Additionally, it is biodegradable, and maintains non-cytotoxicity. It integrates three structure and function effects together, i.e., anchoring effect between catechol and tissue, blood repelling effect from hydrophobic alkyl chain, and blood wicking effect from hydrophilic chitosan. Therefore, a new hemostatic mechanism is proposed for the excellent hemostatic potentials of this chitosan gauze.