thedrifter
10-17-08, 05:52 AM
Soldiers in war zones to be given new bandages
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, October 17, 2008
ARLINGTON, Va. — All soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will get new bandages to treat life-threatening bleeding, replacing the "hemcon" bandages they use now.
The Army has ordered more than 270,000 packages of Quik-Clot Combat Gauze and 17,700 packages of WoundStat, said Lt. Col. Sean Morgan of the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army.
Combat Gauze, made by Z-Medica Corp. in Wallingford, Conn, is gauze with a hemostatic agent while WoundStat, made by TraumaCure in Bethesda, Md., is a granular substance meant to mix with blood to form a seal over wounds.
The Army plans for every soldier to have a package of Combat Gauze while every combat lifesaver issued a combat lifesaver bag will have three packages of Combat Gauze, and all combat medics will have three packages of Combat Gauze and two of WoundStat, Army officials said.
Morgan said the hemostatic agents would be in Qatar by Nov. 30, but he could not say when all troops in Iraq and Afghanistan would have them.
About 60,000 packages of Combat Gauze and all of the packages of WoundStat are in Qatar, waiting to be shipped to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said.
The products are intended to be used in cases of life-threatening bleeding where tourniquets cannot be applied, said Col. Paul Cordts of the Army surgeon general’s office.
Tests have shown that the two products do much better at stopping bleeding than the hemostatic agents that soldiers have now, said Dr. Bijan Kheirabadi, a physiologist with the Army Institute for Surgical Research.
The products were tested on live animals, of which 100 percent treated with WoundStat survived compared with 80 percent of those treated with Combat Gauze.
Ten percent of those treated with hemcon bandages survived, and none of the animals treated with QuikClot — not to be confused with Combat Gauze — survived, Kheirabadi said.
The reason Combat Gauze will be used as the first line of treatment is that medics prefer using gauze products to pack wounds, while WoundStat is harder to get into deep wounds, harder to clean off, and it might lead to blood clots — blocked blood vessels that can result in strokes, officials said.
Devinder Bawa of TraumaCure said the Army Institute for Surgical Research found the risk of WoundStat causing blood clots is "theoretical," and said all wounds must be cleaned out thoroughly prior to surgery.
"We are concerned about assumptions and decisions being made that real-world experiences don’t support," he said.
Ellie
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, October 17, 2008
ARLINGTON, Va. — All soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will get new bandages to treat life-threatening bleeding, replacing the "hemcon" bandages they use now.
The Army has ordered more than 270,000 packages of Quik-Clot Combat Gauze and 17,700 packages of WoundStat, said Lt. Col. Sean Morgan of the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army.
Combat Gauze, made by Z-Medica Corp. in Wallingford, Conn, is gauze with a hemostatic agent while WoundStat, made by TraumaCure in Bethesda, Md., is a granular substance meant to mix with blood to form a seal over wounds.
The Army plans for every soldier to have a package of Combat Gauze while every combat lifesaver issued a combat lifesaver bag will have three packages of Combat Gauze, and all combat medics will have three packages of Combat Gauze and two of WoundStat, Army officials said.
Morgan said the hemostatic agents would be in Qatar by Nov. 30, but he could not say when all troops in Iraq and Afghanistan would have them.
About 60,000 packages of Combat Gauze and all of the packages of WoundStat are in Qatar, waiting to be shipped to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said.
The products are intended to be used in cases of life-threatening bleeding where tourniquets cannot be applied, said Col. Paul Cordts of the Army surgeon general’s office.
Tests have shown that the two products do much better at stopping bleeding than the hemostatic agents that soldiers have now, said Dr. Bijan Kheirabadi, a physiologist with the Army Institute for Surgical Research.
The products were tested on live animals, of which 100 percent treated with WoundStat survived compared with 80 percent of those treated with Combat Gauze.
Ten percent of those treated with hemcon bandages survived, and none of the animals treated with QuikClot — not to be confused with Combat Gauze — survived, Kheirabadi said.
The reason Combat Gauze will be used as the first line of treatment is that medics prefer using gauze products to pack wounds, while WoundStat is harder to get into deep wounds, harder to clean off, and it might lead to blood clots — blocked blood vessels that can result in strokes, officials said.
Devinder Bawa of TraumaCure said the Army Institute for Surgical Research found the risk of WoundStat causing blood clots is "theoretical," and said all wounds must be cleaned out thoroughly prior to surgery.
"We are concerned about assumptions and decisions being made that real-world experiences don’t support," he said.
Ellie