Today’s Solutions: November 12, 2024

UK doctors have discovered that a cheap and widely available drug could save hundreds of thousands of lives each year if it was routinely given to people brought into hospitals with head injuries. The drug is called Tranexamic acid, and it apparently helps stop the bleeding in and around the brain when blood vessels have been torn. It cannot undo the damage, but it can stop a smaller bleed becoming worse.

In a large international study published in The Lancet, some 12,000 head-injury patients were given the drug while others were given a dummy injection or placebo. The researchers found that it can greatly improve patient survival rates if given early enough.

Dr. Nicola Magrini, a representative of the World Health Organization, said it would carefully evaluate the findings and consider whether to add tranexamic acid for head injuries to its Essential Medicines List – drugs it considers important enough to be made widely available to patients across the world.

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

Washington voters uphold groundbreaking climate law, a victory for climate ac...

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM On November 5, Washington voters made an important decision for the future of climate action by deciding to ...

Read More

What is intellectual humility? How intellectual humility unlocks learning and...

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In the records of Indian folklore, there is a timeless story about six blind men discovering an elephant ...

Read More

This simple psychological trick may help you chill out in this busy world

There is growing pressure to spend our free time improving ourselves or the world around us, whether it’s training for a triathlon, volunteering, or ...

Read More

A new way to prepare eggs as an antiviral

Preventative medicine is the low-cost, common-sense way of avoiding big and often expensive acute medical incidents. We don’t smoke so we don’t get cancer. ...

Read More