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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Asian J Neurosurg 2019; 14(02): 483-486
DOI: 10.4103/ajns.AJNS_275_18
Original Article

Bespoke gelfoam wafers: A practical and inexpensive alternative to oxycel for hemostasis during neurosurgery

Santosh Prabhu
Department of Neurosurgery, Western India Institute of Neurosciences, Kolhapur, Maharashtra
,
Sujata Prabhu
1   Department of Neuroanesthesia, Western India Institute of Neurosciences, Kolhapur, Maharashtra
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Background: Since the beginning of neurosurgery, intraoperative parenchymal bleeding has been a major problem. Achievement of hemostasis is the endpoint of any cranial or spinal neurosurgical exercise and is mandatory to avoid postoperative hematomas which mar the ultimate outcome of the surgery. Several biosurgical agents are used to achieve this goal. Agents such as oxidized cellulose, gelatin foam, fibrillar collagen, fibrin sealants, and antifibrinolytic agents are used, each having a different mechanism of action. Materials and Methods: The authors describe a simple technique for substituting oxidized regenerated cellulose (Surgicel) for lining the surgical cavities after excising brain lesions, with customized gelfoam wafers fashioned on the surgical trolley. This has been used in over 8000 cases with excellent hemostatic results over the last 25 years. No complications are noted with use of these wafers. Results: In a randomized trial done by us, similar hemostatic effect was found between oxycel and the gelfoam wafers described by us with satisfactory outcomes of surgeries. No previous use of such custom-fashioned wafers has been described for neurosurgical hemostasis in the literature.

Key-words:

Bespoke - gelfoam - hemostasis - oxidized cellulose

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Article published online:
09 September 2022

© 2019. Asian Congress of Neurological Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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