Hemorrhage Control for Non-Compressible Extremity Injuries

A significant number of battlefield deaths could be prevented through the development of devices and techniques suitable for application in the field as temporary measures for immediate treatment. It is known that up to 10% of battlefield fatalities occur because soldiers bleed to death due to wounds inflicted on their proximal extremities, where it is often not possible to apply standard first aid methods, such as the tourniquet. Payload Systems Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop a device that could be inserted into a wound to slow or stop bleeding sufficiently long that the injured person can be transferred to a facility able to treat the injury appropriately. Using an innovative polymer gel inside a bio-compatible flexible package, the device would be placed inside a wound, where it would swell and adapt to the cavity, in response either to an applied fluid or the patient's own blood, and apply a controlled amount of pressure on the walls of that cavity. This would provide an adaptable mechanical means to stop or slow bleeding in injury sites that are difficult to treat with traditional methods.