No bandage needed: electrical impulses to major nerve help stop bleeding

Forget the gauze and bandages: electrical stimulation near the ear might help to reduce bleeding. Researchers hope the technique could one day be used before surgery, childbirth and other events that pose a risk of dangerously uncontrolled bleeding.

The treatment, called a ‘neural tourniquet’ by its creators, helps to turbocharge the activity of platelets, which are cell fragments that form blood clots, according to preliminary results presented at the 2024 Society for Neuroscience conference.