Bubble Booster

A common ingredient of indigestion tablets could have a life-saving application – helping to stop loss of blood in trauma patients after serious injury. When calcium carbonate neutralises acid in your stomach, it produces carbon dioxide gas – creating pressure that can make you burp. Scientists have made porous micro-particles of calcium carbonate that can be sprinkled onto a wound as a powder. The particles bind to the blood clotting agent, tranexamic acid, producing a stream of carbon dioxide bubbles that propel it deep into the wound, where it reduces bleeding. The technique was originally developed as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, which can occur in the uterus after childbirth. Experiments on mice, with injuries comparable to a shotgun wound, have shown that tranexamic acid can be propelled several centimetres against the flow of blood to help plug a ruptured artery.

Written by Mick Warwicker

Mick Warwicker

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A freelance communications consultant and writer, Mick specialises in science and education. A science graduate and award-winning print and broadcast journalist, he was Head of Communications at Newcastle University from 2000–2011.

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• Image by Christian Kastrup and James Baylis
• University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
• Copyright held by original authors
• Research published in Science Advances, October 2015