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How to Temporarily Stop Soldier's Bleeding?

by Anne Trueman on Jan 31 2013 12:16 PM
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Soldiers sacrifice their lives to safeguard the security and integrity of the nation. It is therefore our prime duty as citizens of the nation to take good and adequate care of the soldiers both at and off the war field.

Scientists have developed a foam injection that can slow down the blood loss of the wounded soldiers before they can be taken to the hospital. Such foam injections promise in protecting the soldiers from internal bleeding which is regarded as the main cause of deaths before the wounded soldiers can be taken to the hospitals for further treatment.

After a number of failures, the researchers at Arsenal Medical Inc have formulated a spray foam which when injected in the abdominal cavity of the wounded soldiers, can stop internal bleeding. This gives them a protecting coverage by the time they can be taken to the hospital for advanced treatment.

This is how it works - two liquid phases, a polyol phase and an isocyanate phase, are injected into the abdominal cavity, which on mixing inside the body trigger a reaction to form a polyurethane polymer (foam) that moulds around the injured organ and resists blood loss.

The researchers have successfully tested the efficacy of foam injections in stopping the internal hemorrhaging in pigs for up to an hour.

Brian Holloway, the Program Manager of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) mentioned, "If testing bears out, the foam technology could affect up to 50 percent of potentially survivable battlefield wounds."

This technology could be useful not only to the soldiers but even to civilians wounded or injured in a serious accident and far away from the hospital.

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About $15.5 million was awarded by the Pentagon Agency to Arsenal Medical Inc in order to develop the important medical foam after the prior successful testing.

The research is funded by the DARPA Wound Stasis program which began in 2010.

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Source-Medindia


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