While medical technology is progressing at a thankfully rapid pace, administering care on a battlefield is still as tough as it ever was—no matter how advanced the technology, the difference between life and death will always be a matter of seconds. But thanks to Oregon-based startup RevMedx, medics have a better alternative for stopping bleeding than applying and re-applying medical gauze: tiny, biocompatible sponges capable of sealing a wound in 15 seconds.
Called XStat, the device’s sponges start out at around one centimeter in diameter before expanding to fill the cavity of a wound, sealing it off and stopping the bleeding much, much quicker than gauze. The sponges, made from wood pulp and covered with chitosan—a blood-clotting substance found in the outer shells of crab, lobster and other shellfish—are administered through a pocket-sized syringe, available at both 30 millimeters and 12 millimeters in diameter depending on the width of the wound.
XStat device could save thousands of soldiers
The developing team was made up of scientists, engineers and medics with experience in the field, ensuring a completely sterile and clean device that’s sure to save a lot of lives.
XStat’s syringe is lightweight polycarbonate, enabling medics and other military in the field to carry it with ease. It’s just as easy to use: medics pull out the handle, put the cylinder into the wound and then press the plunger, making sure to inject the sponges as close to the artery as they possibly can.
To ensure the sponges would not be left in the body, RevMedx put X-ray detectable X-shaped markers on every sponge in XStat. After the wound is sealed and the sponges are no longer needed, medical professionals can simply remove them.
According to a statement in Popular Science by RevMedx partner John Steinbaugh, who was a U.S. Army Special Operations medic, the company and the military are currently conducting final talks with the FDA in order to approve the product. Steinbaugh estimates that each XStat would cost around $100, a pittance considering that each applicator could replace around five rolls of expensive gauze in a medic kit.
For more information on XStat or RevMedx, visit Popular Science
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