Defense Technology International - December 2007 - (Page 12)

SCIENCE WATCH MICHAEL DUMIAK tive, who has worked with Ward in developing blood-related medical A U.S. biotech ﬁrm is the latest artery through the groin and upper technologies, says testing shows company to develop a compound thigh. And because the wound is the compound can stanch arterial aimed at stanching a common and irregular, it’s difﬁcult for a bandage bleeding within 60 sec. Researchers in Europe, meanwhile, deadly battlefield injury—arter- to make contact with all exposed are working to give bandages, some ies ripped open by bullets and surfaces. Researchers have worked for de- of the most basic tools in medicine, shrapnel. Arterial wounds account for the cades on hemostatic compounds active healing properties. Scientists majority of combat fatalities, says and agents, formulating mixtures in the Czech Republic and Germany Kevin Ward, an emergency room from such materials as potato are developing textile bandages with physician at Virginia Common- starch, bovine and pork skin, gela- interwoven drugs and other agents that act as time-release dispensers wealth University. Ward is an associ- tins and algae. Current products include HemCon during rehabilitation. ate director at the university’s ReanThe medical and pharmaceutical imation Engineering Shock Center, Medical Technologies’ 4 X 4-in. banor VCURES, an institution that dage, the primary ingredient being research cluster Nanomedic AS in works with Special Forces medics. a derivation of shrimp shells; SAM Dolni Dobrouc, Czech Republic, has ﬁled a patent for a “biologiHe’s also part of TraumaCure cally active” wound dressing. Inc., a commercial biotech ﬁrm The product, funded by a in Bethesda, Md., that wants $2.1-million European Union to place a mineral-based comgrant, is of interest because pound formulated to stanch the organization’s goal is arterial bleeding into military producing nanofibers that ﬁrst-aid kits. spark tissue regeneration. TraumaCure’s product is the If it manages to work those latest in a line of hemostatic fibers into a bandage that agents developed primarily for gets an effective agent to the battleﬁeld treatment. Some of damaged tissue, it will be an these are being used in Iraq important advance in wound and Afghanistan. The materitreatment. als remain works in progress, Also on the trail are Gerthough, and the U.S. Army is man scientists at the Hohenconducting comparative tests stein Institute, a research to determine which provide the An Iraqi soldier is evacuated from organization for textiles in most beneﬁt. Mosul with a leg wound. Compounds Bonnighelm, near Stuttgart. An arterial injury, with its re- and dressings that stanch blood may Dirk Hofer and his team run sulting high-pressure spurt of reduce fatalities from severe wounds. the hygiene research lab, and blood, is severe. The quality of treatment a victim receives within Medical Products’ Celox, a pourable have isolated the active elements in minutes after it occurs can mean agent derived from shrimp shells; blowﬂy maggot excretions. When those excretions come into the difference between life and and Z-Medica Corp.’s zeolite microporous granules. TraumaDEX from contact with a wound, they clean death. The wound is one of the most dif- Medafor is a plant-based biomate- the damaged tissue and speed healﬁcult to treat in combat conditions. rial, but it is not designed to take ing. Hofer believes that by coating ﬁlaments with these secretions, the “These are enormously complex the pressure of arterial wounds. The American Red Cross has even result will be better bandages. His wounds,” Ward says. “They are not simple deep lacerations. It’s because worked with the Army on a proj- team has a prototype but continues of the energy imparted to the tis- ect called Dry Fibrin Sealant Dress- work on ﬁnding the right ﬁber for sue. You end up with craters—a vic- ing, composed of clotting proteins the application. It’s an irony of modern warfare tim may be bleeding from 100 sites purified from donated blood and within the wound, and you can’t plasma. A military study prices the that as much effort seems to go into identify the source.” In as little as different offerings from $11 for ﬁnding ways to repair devastating 45 sec., mean arterial pressure can TraumaDEX to $500-1,000 for Dry wounds as fielding the weapons that cause them. Wars are creatdrop by more than 50%, with half Fibrin. Into this mix comes TraumaCure’s ing harsh laboratories for medical the blood volume gone. Tourniquets, pressure and gauze WoundStat, which uses a combina- science in its effort to heal injuries all aim to do the same thing: shut tion of smectite (a clay mineral like that a generation ago would have off blood flow and allow blood talc) and a super-absorbent poly- been fatal. Developing successful platelets and proteins to form a mer. When wet, it makes a kind of ways of managing arterial wounds clot. But tourniquets and pressure Silly Putty-like material that can prior to hospital treatment would can’t be applied everywhere in the be packed into a wound. Devinder be a major step forward in reducing body, for example in the femoral Bawa, TraumaCure’s chief execu- battleﬁeld deaths. I USAF SSGT. JACOB BAILEY STOP THE BLEEDING 12 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL DECEMBER 2007 www.aviationweek.com/dti http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Defense Technology International - December 2007

Defense Technology International - December 2007 Contents Around the World Science Watch Tech Watch BrahMos: Ramjet Ship Killer r-e-s-p-e-c-t Deja Vu Trump Card Dubai Demos Agile Helos Joint Force Online Charge UGVs Creep, Crawl to Victory Sweet Ride Fast, Lethal Ship Defense Networking Stealth: Why Raptors Can't Talk The Net Cutting Edge First Person In Review Insight

Defense Technology International - December 2007

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