Plug bullet wounds in 20 seconds with this FDA-approved syringe

 

 Okay, so you’ve suffered some sort of traumatic injury, which is a pretty serious bummer. According to the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research, a full 30-40% of civilian deaths from traumatic injury are a result of hemorrhaging (i.e. bleeding) and 33-56% of them die before reaching a hospital. Therefore, your best chance of survival is to staunch the flow of blood as quickly as possible. That’s where a newly approved medical device comes into play. The Xstat Rapid Hemostasis System is basically a syringe filled with tiny sponges, and it’s now available to civilians.
The Xstat was originally developed for use by the military, where the risk of traumatic injury and bullet wounds is somewhat higher than it is in the civilian population. It was first deployed in 2014, but now the FDA has finished evaluating the device, making it available for use by first responders in the event of an accident, natural disaster, or shooting.
Inside the oversized Xstat syringe are 92 tablet-sized sterile sponges composed of cellulose. It is intended to stop bleeding in wounds that cannot be stopped easily by other means. Bleeding on an extremity can usually be effectively slowed with a simple tourniquet that restricts blood flow to the injury, but a bullet wound or other deep injury to the torso is harder to close. In this case, the Xstat would be inserted into the wound (which sounds just lovely) and activated to release the sponges. Each sponge also has an X-ray marker so doctors can make sure they are all removed from the body later.

It takes only about 20 seconds for the injected sponges to absorb blood and expand to fill the wound. Maker RevMedX says each applicator can soak up an impressive pint of blood, and as many as three syringes can be used on a patient. This device is all about speed in a worst-case scenario. An average adult male has about eight pints of blood, so a single Xstat can absorb a substantial portion of all the blood in your body. If three of them isn’t enough, you’ve got big problems.
While the FDA has approved the Xstat for civilian use, it’s not going to be a regular part of trauma care. It is only supposed to be used in cases where a patent is seriously wounded and proper medical care at a hospital is not going to be available in the next several minutes. It is also not approved for use in certain parts of the chest, abdomen, pelvis, or anywhere above the collarbone. Even with the restrictions, it could see a lot of use and save lives.