Ultrasound to treat war wounds (BBC) {DARPA project in the works}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

The US military plans a portable device that uses focused sound waves to treat troops bleeding internally from wounds sustained on the battlefield.
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The device would first use ultrasound imaging technology, in particular "Doppler ultrasound", to locate internal bleeding. This employs a physical phenomenon known as the Doppler effect to look for a characteristic signature of bleeding vessels.

It would then deliver a focused beam of high-powered ultrasound to those sites in order to cauterise the damaged vessels.

The Deep Bleeder Acoustic Coagulation (DBAC) programme is sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).

Darpa envisages the device as a "cuff" containing an array of ultrasound transducers, different elements of which will detect bleeding and deliver focused, high-powered energy to the wound. This cuff would be flexible enough to be wrapped around the treatment area.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5106598.stm

One the one hand: anything that saves lives of injured soldiers should be welcomed. On the other: this is a high-tech cauterization, a 'quick-and-dirty' treatment which may complicate, or even render infeasible, later reconstructive surgery. I just wish there weren't so many opportunities to test it.

[benburch]

1. We are now able to save the lives of people so maimed...

...that they will never have any real quality of life.

[Orrex]

2. Which came first--the treatment or the weapon?

It seems to me that DARPA would be more interested in a sonic weapon than in a sonic medical device. If you could cauterize a few blood vessels in, say, someone's brain, you wouldn't have nearly as much mess to clean up as if you'd shot him.

Hello, crowd control!