Sponge injection could save the lives of domestic gunshot victims

[Tab]

As mass shootings continue to make headlines and gun sales surge nationwide, a sponge-injecting device designed to patch life-threatening bullet wounds in war is making a domestic debut.

The device, called XSTAT 30, acts like a syringe that squirts out 92 tiny, compressed cellulose sponges coated with a blood-sopping absorbent. Together, the sponges can take in about a pint of blood and swell enough to completely fill-in a wound, creating a physical barrier for blood flow. That plugging-power may be enough to prevent life-threatening blood loss as a patient is rushed to an emergency medical facility, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

On Tuesday, the agency approved the use of XSTAT in civilian adults and adolescents.

The move comes more than a year after the FDA approved XSTAT for use by the military. XSTAT’s developer, RevMedX, originally designed the sponges to fill in combat-related bullet or shrapnel wounds in areas of the body where a tourniquet won’t work, such as the armpit or groin.
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Once a patient reaches a medical facility, the sponges can be easily plucked out. And each sponge contains an X-ray-detectable marker, to ensure that no sponges are left behind.

Though XSTAT is not cleared for use in certain parts of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis, when appropriate, up to three sponge-packed devices can be used on a single patient with a life-threatening wound.

More: http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/12/sponge-injection-could-save-the-lives-of-domestic-gunshot-victims/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. This is an excellent new product!

I hope it will widely disseminated so that gunshot victims all over the country can be saved, where before they were lost.

K&R

[zalinda]

2. Tampons will also work in a pinch

and are more readily available.

Z

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. True, but they're not sterile, and these are.

[jberryhill]

18. They're not?

Learn something new every day.

[Glassunion]

13. I'm a guy. I carry tampons (Tactically Advantageous Medical Preparedness Outdoors Necessity)

when I'm on adventures outdoors. I also keep a couple in the trunk of my car.

Throughout tampons history, they have been used as a plug (French word tapon meand "little plug&quot for bullet wounds.

Why I like tampons...
They come in waterproof packaging
They are very absorbent
They are quite flammable
The cotton when pulled and twisted exhibits an excellent capillary action
The applicators make a good straw

So when pulled apart you have an excellent bandage, a wick, crude water filter, kindling, straw, or cordage. Not to mention it's intended uses.

[Cassiopeia]

4. Battlefield tested wound dressings

to be approved for use on US streets.

Yes, this is exactly what it has come to.

[pediatricmedic]

15. You do realize nearly everything in Emergency Medicine started in the military

The paramedics that come to your door, the nurses and doctors in the ER, all the equipment and procedures. It all started out on the battlefield at one point.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Hell the whole field started

With the famous 1966 white paper. A crash victim had abetter chance of not reaching the ER alive than a soldier of reaching a mash unit.

Chances were that civilian hospital did not have a team standing by either

[Cobalt Violet]

5. Will they be more regulated than the guns and bullets that cause the wounds?

I imagine they will be. This is on fucked up country. Everyone should be give 4 or 5 or 10 if the government continues to do nothing to control guns.

[malaise]

6. You win the thread

Gun control is the fugging issue

[Tab]

7. Yeah, but, um, this might be a safety issue

so, ya know, we might want to regulate it somehow....

[Cobalt Violet]

8. Yeah, they might end up in the hands of children or criminals. n/t

[yellowcanine]

14. As a "medical device" probably so. Yes it is effed up.

But no more effed up than Congress saying the CDC cannot study gun violence. Just sayin.

[Javaman]

9. I read about this a few years ago when it was first tried in Iraq and Afghanistan...

It's pretty amazing.

[Tab]

10. That could be pretty cool then

I'd like to know more about how it works

[Javaman]

12. here's were I first read about it.

Injectable sponges can stop bleeding in 15 seconds

http://archive.armytimes.com/article/20140208/NEWS04/302080004/Injectable-sponges-can-stop-bleeding-15-seconds

Researchers say they have found a way to fight the leading cause of death on the battlefield — bleed-outs — using sterile pellet-shaped sponges that can quickly plug wounds.

The Army-funded technology, a potential life-saver for troops called XStat, uses a light, pocket-sized injector to send 92 sponges into a wound, halting bleeding in 15 seconds, according to the manufacturer, RevMedx. The technology is unique because the sponges, expand as they absorb blood, exerting constant pressure on a wound.

The Oregon-based company has submitted the technology for FDA approval after working to develop it with $5 million in seed money from the Army and Special Operations Command, said John Steinbaugh, vice-president at RevMedx and a former Special Forces medic.

“If you pack gauze into a wound and take your hands off, there’s no pressure on the [blood] vessel,” Steinbaugh said. “Every minute you’re holding pressure, that’s time a medic can’t treat someone else because he’s trying to stop bleeding.”


more at link...

[GGJohn]

11. We sure could have used this technology in Vietnam,

we'd have a lot less names on our wall.

[treestar]

16. interesting and what percentage of gunshot wounds that end up fatal

were not fatal immediately and were due to bleeding?

[Tab]

17. There are certainly lots of scenarios where you have lots of wounded

Boston bombing for instance.

[LTG]

20. Will probably be pretty expensive

A wonderful idea and a valuable life saving device. ERs and paramedics will certainly carry these. But they will likely be awfully expensive for a home trauma kit.

I maintain a pretty extensive trauma pack as part of my own first aid kit, I can stabilize and treat most breaks, burns and wounds. I live in an area subject to earthquakes and floods, so the ability to be as self-sufficient as possible for, hopefully brief, periods of time is important. It is highly unlikely I'll ever be able to afford to buy them for my kit.

I read an article (it's been awhile so I don't have a citation) that said that the government was paying around $100 for these. One company expected to sell them for $400, although that might have been for a pack of 3.

Pretty spendy to carry around just in case someone shoots you.

[Tab]

21. It would have to be at major institutional locations

'cause if you have to carry your own supply (and I certainly won't), it'll end up like the proverbial condom in the wallet, assuming you even have it.

But maybe someone could find funding to put it in all the schools. You know, so if a good guy with a gun wounds a bad guy with the gun then we can save the bad guy with the gun so we can subject him to enhanced interrogation techniques, which I assume is also supported by Republican extremists in these cases.

[LTG]

22. True, but considering recent history

they'll have to buy and keep them ready by the dozens, if not the gross.

Of course that kind of demand could work to dramatically reduce consumer prices as well. Hmmmmmmm