MicrobeWorld

Imagine a battlefield medic or emergency medical technician providing first aid with a special wad of cottony glass fibers that simultaneously slows bleeding, fights bacteria (and other sources of infection), stimulates the body's natural healing mechanisms, resists scarring, and-because it is quickly absorbed by surrounding tissue - may never have to be removed in follow-up care.

Or, imagine diabetics with hard-to-heal wounds finding a source of relief from the battle against infections and limb amputation.

Those scenarios are the hope of the developers of a revolutionary borate glass nanofiber material, which appears to have helped the final healing long-term wounds in eight out of 12 venous stasis wound sufferers in a recent clinical trial held at a medical center in Rolla, Mo.

Details about the trials and the glass fiber material were published in the May issue of the American Ceramic Society's Bulletin magazine.