{"id":1011,"date":"2020-10-07T09:01:44","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T13:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1011"},"modified":"2021-02-03T13:34:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T18:34:40","slug":"dear-dr-k-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1011","title":{"rendered":"Dear Dr. K,"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Recently I got a severe leg abrasion when I had an accident on my motorcycle.&nbsp; I needed surgery to clean the leg and stop all the bleeding.&nbsp; Three days later my leg got red and swollen and itched.&nbsp; My surgeon gave me an antibiotic thinking it was infected.&nbsp; But the culture was negative, and the leg kept getting worse.&nbsp; Then, he gave me prednisone and the leg got better quickly.&nbsp; Any ideas?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, I\u2019m no Dr. House, but since I know your food allergies include gelatin, I suspect you reacted to a hemostatic agent containing gelatin.&nbsp; \u201cHemostatic\u201d means to stop bleeding and hemostatic agents are vital to surgeons.&nbsp; Gelatin is used in many of them because its\u2019 protein structure provides a scaffold that promotes clot formation.&nbsp; It is available in two forms:&nbsp;&nbsp; a matrix (sponge, film or powder) or as a foam.&nbsp;&nbsp; Examples in common use today include:&nbsp; Surgifoam, Surgiflo, Gelfoam, Floseal, MeroPack, Thrombi-Gel, Gelfoam, and Optisphere.&nbsp; There are non-gelatin products available that are made from cellulose.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, the story doesn\u2019t end there as you need to be aware of gelatin exposure in other medical settings.&nbsp; Some medical devices contain gelatin.&nbsp; Some vascular grafts contain gelatin as do some heart valve replacements.&nbsp; Some bone replacement implants contain gelatin and are used in both skeletal and dental products.&nbsp; IV fluids are generally safe but some of what are called colloid fluids (often used for patients in shock) contain gelatin.&nbsp; As it turns out, no colloid fluids in the USA contain gelatin, but gelatin containing fluids are frequently used in Europe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many medicines contain gelatin either to form the capsule (for example Advil Liqui-gels) or as a binder.&nbsp;&nbsp; Since the number of OTC and prescription drugs is so large, it is advisable to read labeling on any medication you plan to take.&nbsp; A few intraocular lens implants (used in cataract surgery) contain gelatin, but most do not.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, some vaccines contain gelatin.&nbsp; Most notable is the MMR vaccine.&nbsp; There is an interesting side story to the MMR vaccine that is worth mentioning.&nbsp;&nbsp; Although allergic reactions to MMR are rare, when they do occur doctors initially thought it was due to egg allergy as the vaccine is prepared in an egg medium.&nbsp; But when these cases were more closely studied, it turned out that the gelatin, not egg, was the provocateur.&nbsp; Actually, children with egg allergy an receive MMR without any concern for allergic reaction.&nbsp; A few other vaccines may contain gelatin depending on the manufacturer:&nbsp; rabies vaccine, typhoid vaccine, yellow fever vaccine, and one type of flu vaccine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I got a severe leg abrasion when I had an accident on my motorcycle.&nbsp; I needed surgery to clean the leg and stop all the bleeding.&nbsp; Three days later my leg got red and swollen and itched.&nbsp; My surgeon gave me an antibiotic thinking it was infected.&nbsp; But the culture was negative, and the leg kept getting worse.&nbsp; Then, he gave me prednisone and the leg got better quickly.&nbsp; Any ideas? Well, I\u2019m no Dr. House, but since I&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1011\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[415],"class_list":["post-1011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gelatin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions\/1035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}