First responders have to work quickly when treating gun shot wounds. To help them, a U.S. company has developed a syringe that pumps expandable tablet-sized sponges into the wound, blocking it while the patient is being transported to ER.
The patent-pending device, called the XStat Rapid Hemostasis System, is meant to seal gun shot wounds in the pelvis or shoulder area. The tablets, which are standard medical sponges coated with a hemostatic agent and then compressed, expand on contact with blood, inducing an artificial and temporary form of homeostasis. In addition to blocking blood flow, the sponges provide a surface on which blood can start clotting. And because each of them have to removed eventually, they’re equipped with a tiny radiopaque marker so that any left behind in the body can be scanned by an X-ray.
The device comes in two sizes (depending on the size of the wound, but it hasn’t been approved for use in the US.
[ MedGadget ]
