Researchers have rise a new treatment that involvesinjecting smart glueinto the site of a major injury in the eyeball . This then solidifies into a quid to seal the combat injury .
In possibility , this should give the patient more time to get to prophylactic and receive medical treatment to permanently end the injury and hopefully save the eye from further damage .
Although less hash out , serious optic injury is a major job in forward-looking war . “ If you face at historic data over the last several decades , the charge per unit of warfare - related visual injuries has steadily increased from a fraction of a percentage to as eminent as 10 to 15 percent , ” excuse researcher John Whalen , who co - authored the study publish inScience Translational Medicine , in astatement . This is at least in part down to the changes in warfare , specially when it add up to improvise explosive devices .
Yet even today , there is no rapid way to treat eye injuries on the battlefield . The best a medick can do at the time is to clean it up and then desire that the affected role can get further treatment as speedily as possible . If not treated fast enough , however , eye injury can go to complications such as a come off retina and eventually blindness .
The team at the University of Southern California have taken a hydrogel known as poly(N - isopropylacrylamide ) , or only PNIPAM , to help with this subject . The hydrogel has the unknown properties of being liquid at humble temperature , but becoming whole and adhesive at higher temperatures .
“ Since the initial hydrogel ’s passage temperature was very close to the temperature of the human eye , we had to modify its properties to ensure that it would mold a solid seal as shortly as the gel was applied to the eye by a soldier or medick , ” say Niki Bayat , who led the research . “ Providing a complete , yet reversible sealskin , the smart hydrogel shows hope for the next multiplication of tissue adhesives . ”
To off it , Dr. simply have to cool the gel once more with insensate water system , so that it becomes indulgent enough to remove .
The next hurdle was to work out out a way to administer the eye mucilage well while out on the field of battle . The team create a special syringe with a cooling bedchamber that is occupy with the same chemicals used in instant ice cold-blooded packs . By simply adding water to the bedchamber , it cools the gum enough to make it liquid for use within just 30 seconds .
So far , the glue has been tested on the eyes of rabbits and pigs to great winner . Human trial are expected to set out in 2019 .
