Preparation and characterization of chitosan/carboxymethyl chitosan hemostatic membrane

Aimed at the poor toughness of chitosan hemostatic membrane, glycerol and etamsylate were chosen as modification reagents to prepare chitosan (CS)/carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) hemostatic membrane with different weight ratios by solution casting method. The effects of glycerol and etamsylate on mechanical properties and hemostatic efficiency were evaluated by tensile tests. The blood coagulation time was characterized to illustrate the interactions between CS/CMCS hemostatic membrane and blood. Results indicate that the elongation at break of CS/CMCS hemostatic membrane modified by glycerol without etamsylate is increased by 4-7 times, although the tensile strength of that is decreased by 70%. The tensile strength and the elongation at break of CS/CMCS hemostatic membrane modified by glycerol and etamsylate are 10.4±0.9 MPa and 50.4±4.5%, respectively. Compared with the CS/CMCS hemostatic membrane modified by glycerol without etamsylate, the tensile strength is increased by 55% and the elongation at break is merely decreased by about 24% attributed to the ions crosslinking of sulfonate. Results of the hemostatic test show that CS/CMCS=8/2 hemostatic membrane modified by glycerol can accelerate the blood separation and induce the blood coagulation to form black clotting.