High-Tech Injection Can Seal Gunshot Wounds in 15 Seconds
By Jordyn Taylor | BetaBeat
An Oregon-based start-up might have revolutionized the way we heal gunshot wounds.
Startup RevMedx, which develops products for military medics and members of the emergency services, has created a device that can seal a gunshot wound in 15 seconds, Popular Science reports. The device is called XStat, and its creators are hoping the FDA will approve it for use by medical professionals.
XStat consists of an applicator filled with dozens of tiny sponges that soak up a ton of blood when injected into an open wound.
And those pesky little sponges won’t get lodged and lost in your body forever. They’re marked with something called a “radiopaque marker,” which means they’ll show up on an X-ray when the victim reaches the hospital.
Currently, military medics and civilian first responders typically use gauze to heal gunshot wounds — a painful process that’s not particularly efficient. “A medic must pack gauze directly into the wound cavity, sometimes as deep as 5 inches into the body, to stop bleeding from an artery,” Popular Science explains. “It’s an agonizing process that doesn’t always work — if bleeding hasn’t stopped after three minutes of applying direct pressure, the medic must pull out all the gauze and start over again.” Nice.
According to Popular Science, the RevMedx team received $5 million from the U.S. Army to finish developing the product. The company also won a seed grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a version of XStat that helps stymie postpartum bleeding.
If approved by the FDA, it’ll be interesting to see how XStat holds up against QuikClot, a coagulant used by New York City’s Emergency Services Unit that helps stop rapid bleeding. QuikClot is a granular substance that’s sort of sprinkled over a wound, so it doesn’t involve any aggressive gauze stuffing, either.
Either way, it’s good to know that we’ll be well cared for should we ever come in contact with, you know, an organ destroying bullet or something.
