April 8, 2024
By Hyun Cho
In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the country’s first medication to treat severe frostbite. This drug is known as the iloprost, and it greatly reduced amputations in nearly all the frostbite patients who received it.
In worst cases, frostbite can cause the tissues in toes, fingers, noses, and limbs to die and require amputation. But now with iloprost, there is a way to save patients from these life-altering effects. Although frostbite affects a relatively small number of people in the United States, the numbers range around a few thousand annually, it can be a major concern to people who must spend a lot of time outside in the cold. This can include mountain climbers, people in the military, and people without access to heat or housing.
A study on iloprost was first done in 1994 to test if the drug may also be able to open up jammed blood vessels as a result of frostbite. It was tested on five patients, successfully allowing for recovery of frostbites in all cases listed above. Furthermore, the drug showed promising results in other studies in England, France, and Nepal. This result has been considered an approved treatment for frostbite for years in European countries. Only recently, the U.S. has approved the drug.
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