Cheap Drug Prevents Deaths From Injury Bleeding

Published: Aug. 14, 2010, 6:34 p.m.

b'Tens of thousands of injury victims could be saved each year from bleeding to death, according to research just released in the medical journal: The Lancet. Scientist studying 20 000 patients taking part in the CRASH-2 trial in 274 hospitals in 40 countries have found that a simple, cheap, drug \\u2013 normally used to stem the flow of blood during surgery \\u2013 could save as many as 100 000 lives each year among the more than half a million victims of injury around the world. Scientists Ian Roberts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Tim Coats from Leicester University, gave a press briefing in London \\u2013 together with anaesthetist Jorge Mejia from Colombia and the Director of the World Health Organisation\\u2019s Department for Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability, Etienne Krug \\u2013 to discuss the importance of the CRASH-2 findings in terms of saving lives at low cost around the world. Ian Roberts tells Peter Goodwin more about why these findings are important for emergency medicine around the world.'