Findings from a team from Detroit Medical Center found that packing strips of cured pork in the nose of a child who suffers from uncontrollable, life-threatening nosebleeds can stop the hemorrhaging, according to The Associated Press.
Dr. Sonal Saraiya and her colleagues revealed the discovery that won them a 2014 Ig Nobel prize, the AP reported.
Saraiya said sticking pork products up the patient's nose was a last-resort treatment after conventional treatments had failed, according to the AP.
The 4-year-old child's nostrils were packed with cured pork twice, and according to their study, "the nasal vaults successfully stopped nasal hemorrhage promptly (and) effectively," the AP reported.
This treatment was only used for a very specific condition known as Glanzmann thrombasthenia, a rare condition in which blood does not properly clot, the AP reported.
"We had to do some out-of-the-box thinking," Saraiya said, according to the AP. "So that's where we put our heads together and thought to the olden days and what they used to do."
The method worked because "there are some clotting factors in the pork ... and the high level of salt will pull in a lot of fluid from the nose," she said, the AP reported. Soraiya does not recommend sticking pork up your nose for a routine nosebleed, as it could cause infection.
Dr. Sonal Saraiya and her colleagues revealed the discovery that won them a 2014 Ig Nobel prize, the AP reported. Saraiya was celebrated at Harvard University by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine.
