The spoils of war: Death or mutilation?

The BioHemostat is a new and revolutionary wound treatment developed by Marcus Carr and other researchers within VCURES, the Virginia Commonwealth University's Reanimation Engineering Shock Center. It's designed to replace the ages-old "battlefield" tourniquet which has long been the standard and only emergency treatment to restrict blood flow to injured limbs and prevent dangerous loss of blood.

However, amputation rates following battlefield arterial wounds have not improved since World War II, despite aggressive advances in surgical treatment. Using a tourniquet does stop blood flow, but it can also cause complications by damaging nerves and other tissues denied blood for too long. Two-thirds of combat-related deaths are due to bleeding, with 80% of those deaths occurring in the first 15 minutes following an injury. Back on the "home front," 50% of all civilian trauma deaths are from bleeding.

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