Dry System for Thawing Frozen Blood

The long-term objectives of this research are to substantially improve the military frozen blood system with a number of specific devices and advances. A Dry Heat system is developed to permit very rapid thawing (under 10 minutes) instead of the 40 to 60minutes now necessary using an inconvenient, large water bath. This heating system is also used to warm IV fluids in surgery. Rapid thawing is crucial to meeting the military needs for thawed and deglycerolized blood in emergencies. A new blood bag withits protective shipping container is developed that will have less than 3% breakage, compared to current 20% to 50% breakage in military use.The Phase I effort demonstrated feasibility and the proposed Phase II research will develop, fabricate, test, demonstrate, and begin field testing of pre-production prototypes of the Dry Heat system and the new frozen blood bag. Military frozen bloodusers and blood experts will aid in the tests and evaluations.