While these bandages can save lives on the battlefield and at home, they don't come cheaply. Fibrin bandages cost close to $1000 each. At just $85 each, the chitosan solution seems like a bargain. But there is another fast-clotting technology that costs less than $20 for a 3½-ounce packet. QuikClot was developed by Z-Medica LLC of Wallingford, Conn., and works by activating the natural coagulation cascade, advancing the clotting process at the site of the wound to begin natural healing immediately. The active ingredient in the battle-tested gauze product is kaolin, an inert, non-allergenic substance, that reacts upon contact with water. A slightly different formulation of QuikClot, marketed under the product name QuikClot 1st Response, has become a standby for environmental health and safety teams, industrial nurses, and civilian first-responders everywhere. Z-Medica's kaolin-based Combat Gauze, after extensive comparison-testing of the available products, has succeeded HemCon in use by the military.


Battle-Strength Antibiotics

Severe wounds, including compound fractures and torn muscles, resulting from improvised explosive devices often make the introduction of antibiotics by intravenous injection infeasible. The medical benefits simply can't reach the devastated site because the local vasculature has been destroyed. Osteomyelitis is a bone infection which usually occurs in severe fractures when bone is exposed to open air. It can create an atmosphere for further infection and potentially necessitate amputation. For years, physicians in conventional hospitals have worked to prevent it by packing common bone cement with dosages of standard broad-spectrum antibiotics. The shortcomings of this practice encountered by the military in Iraq were threefold. First, in a conventional hospital, a setting treatment is continuous and constantly monitored, with supplemental antibiotics administered as needed - a luxury not available on the battlefield. Second, while the bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii, a major cause of osteomyelitis, is rare in the United States, it's prevalent in the Middle East. It tends to make the injury more vulnerable to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), regarded as the most deadly pathogen in the United States. Finally, the bone cement solution is inconsistent, and varies with the practitioner. Mixing and manipulation of the materials in the open air only invites further risk.

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