This report originally appeared in the December 2009 issue of DOTmed Business News

Tang drink mix was not actually invented for astronauts - it was a bit of savvy marketing to let moms nationwide know that NASA did, in fact, deem it of high enough quality to fly with America's space-bound heroes. Teflon, on the other hand, was used by the U.S. military long before it coated the world's frying pans. It was used by the Manhattan Project to coat valves and seals in the process of enriching uranium to develop the atomic bomb. Much later, due to its exceptional flexibility and bio-compatibility, it was utilized in artificial joint replacements and in grafts used to bypass stenotic arteries in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease.

When ingenuity is applied to cases of urgent necessity, as is so often the case in the field of medicine during periods of war, both hot and cold, inventions flourish that spill over into conventional use, replacing treatments that were less effective and more costly. And frequently solutions emerge that so radically alter the way we look at a problem, that they change the course of medical history.
Fast-Clotting Bandages

Blood loss emerges as the leading killer in war, historically accounting for more than half of all deaths. In just the past decade, strides have been made to lessen the damage in the very midst of the danger. New tools for dressing open flesh wounds have emerged as simple but effective lifesavers. For more than a decade, Col. John Holcomb, head of the Army's Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, Texas, has led research on a new type of bandage that first saw use early in the Iraq War. When this bandage, coated with fibrinogen and thrombin, is applied to a wound, the factors combine to form fibrin, the major component of a blood clot. Another bandage, developed at the Oregon Medical Laser Center in Portland, Ore., achieves a similar result by different means. Chitosan (key-toe-san), a substance with varied commercial applications that in its natural state binds the outer shells of shrimp and other crustaceans, when refined, helps to promote the formation of blood clots. When positively charged chitosan molecules are fixed to a bandage, they attract negatively charged red blood cells, causing them to clump together into a solid clot. The HemCon (for "hemorrhage control") bandage works in 90% of cases and stops bleeding in as little as 30 seconds. Since getting fast-track approval from the FDA, the bandage has become not just standard-issue in the armed forces, but since 2006, has also been distributed to civilian medical personnel, including ambulance drivers and emergency room doctors.

More Industry Headlines