Sealing the Wound

Revmedx, an Oregon–based start up has developed a special syringe that can seal a gunshot wound in no less than 15 seconds. The company is dedicated towards developing groundbreaking medical products that are designed specifically for combat medics and civilians.

The pocket–sized syringe named XStat precisely injects coated sponges into the wounds of an injured person that boosts the survival rate by mending the wound at a faster rate. The company struck upon this idea from Fix–a–Flat foam for repairing tyres. That was when they pictured the perfect solution; something they could inject in a wound that would expand so that the bleeding stops. So, they cut ordinary sponges into 1 cm circles and injected them into the wounds of an injured animal. The bleeding, however, stopped almost immediately and researchers thereafter, produced sponge out of the wood pulp and coated it with chitosan, a blood clotting, antimicrobial substance found in shrimp shells.

Their product received a backing with the US army, who gave them $5 million to develop a finished product. The sponges can save life at the eleventh hour and give medics’ the necessary time to apply a bandage. To ensure that no sponges are left in the body post–medication, the sponges are marked with an ‘x’ to make each sponge visible in an X–ray image. Using Xstat is simple as medics are simply needed to insert the syringe into a wound and press the plunger to inject the sponges.