# Combat Gauze Approved



## tomahawk6 (26 Oct 2008)

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/army_clotting_bandages_102608w/

New blood-clotting bandages OK’d for use

By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Oct 26, 2008 9:01:44 EDT
   
Army medics will soon begin carrying the next generation of blood-clotting bandages onto the battlefield, replacing the dressings soldiers have used since 2003.

The Army surgeon general has approved Combat Gauze as a replacement for Hemcon, a square pad that contains chitosan molecules extracted from shrimp shells. Another bandage, called WoundStat and made by TraumaCare, will replace QuikClot for wounds that are difficult to bandage or in cases where Combat Gauze has failed to stop the bleeding.

The surgeon general approved the new hemostatic bandages in response to feedback from combat medics in the Army, Navy and Air Force and using data compiled by the Army Institute of Surgical Research and the Naval Medical Research Center on hemorrhage control.

More than 277,000 of the Combat Gauze bandages and 17,700 packages of WoundStat have been purchased and they are at a distribution point in Qatar awaiting shipment to Iraq and Afghanistan, said Col. Paul Cordts, director of health policy and services in the office of the Army surgeon general.

Combat Gauze, which is made by Z-Medica and is in the QuikClot family of products, comes in a small package that has four yards of 3-inch flexible, roll-up gauze infused with an inorganic mineral called kaolin that triggers blood clotting upon application.

Medics can wrap the gauze or pack it into a wound cavity. Unlike Hemcon, there is no heat reaction or burning when it comes in contact with skin or soft tissue, Cordts said.

QuikClot granules also generate heat, enough in some cases to cause second-degree burns when placed against the skin. Its replacement, WoundStat, is also granular, composed of the clay mineral smectite, but while they are poured directly into a wound they don’t burn, according to researchers at the Institute of Surgical Research.

“With WoundStat, the real target is the wounds that cannot take a tourniquet,” said Col. Lorne Blackbourne, commander of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and a trauma surgeon who has deployed to Iraq. These wounds may be in areas that can’t take tourniquets but can take compression, including groin, neck, underarm and subclavia.

“That represents up to 20 percent of the potentially salvageable wounds we’re seeing on the battlefield,” Blackbourne said.

But Blackbourne and the other Army researchers who spoke to military reporters at the Pentagon Oct. 15 say they don’t know what would happen if one of those granules traveled into the bloodstream. As such, they describe WoundStat as an agent that should be used carefully and as a last resort.

“The theoretical risk is that if it gets in the blood vessel, the vessel would clot,” Blackbourne said. “That means we don’t want to use this unless we have life-threatening hemorrhage. As surgeons, we’d much rather have a live patient come to us with a clot in the vessel, which we can fix almost all the time. One thing we don’t want to lose sight of is, this will save the war fighter’s life to get them to a surgeon.”

“In surgery we often talk about life over limb. If the wounded war fighter is going to die, we want to use this hemostatic agent so that they live, even with the risk of injury to the limb,” Blackbourne asserted.

The Army’s plan is to have combat medics carry three Combat Gauze pouches and two WoundStat packages. Combat Lifesaver bags carried by designated soldiers will be stocked with three Combat Gauze packages.

Each deployed soldier will carry one Combat Gauze in their Improved First Aid Kits.


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## dregeneau (26 Oct 2008)

So I assume that this is implemented in the USA. How long will it take for Canada to approve this Gauze (sorry, I'm studying in the Health Sciences sector, but I don't know what the Canadian Forces specs are)?
And it would be interesting to know what the results would be on the long term effects of the inorganic compound used to kick in the clotting agents are.


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## Armymedic (26 Oct 2008)

It will take forever for it to be officially approved. The CF is still stuck on Quikclot, and will take a couple yrs to catch up to this newest stuff as a general issue item.

But no worries though. While Combat Gauze is a really great product that does work extremely well, the tried and true nonmedicated gauze we can all get issued, when applied properly, still works wonders.


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## tomahawk6 (26 Oct 2008)

Combat Gauze is part of the Quick Clot family.


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