EFFICACY OF A DRY FIBRIN SEALANT DRESSING FOR HEMORRHAGE CONTROL AFTER BALLISTIC INJURY

Objective: To determine if a dry fibrin sealant dressing (DFSD) will p rovide superior hemostasis when compared with regular gauze in a balli stic injury animal model. Design: A nonsurvival randomized goat study. Setting: A federal biomedical research institute. Subjects: Eighteen anesthetized Angora goats. Interventions: Uncontrolled hemorrhage was induced by a complex ballistic extremity injury. Control of hemorrhage was achieved by applying and holding pressure with the DFSD or regula r gauze for 2 minutes. The dressings were left in place for 1 hour. Ma in Outcome Measures: Total blood loss, mean arterial pressure, ballist ic injury, and mortality were recorded after 1 hour. Results: The inju ries were equivalent for the 2 groups. No animal mortality was seen. A fter 1 hour, the mean (+/-SEM) blood loss was 124+/-64 mL in the DFSD- treated group and 377+/-64 mL in the gauze dressings-treated group (P= .01). Twenty minutes after injury, the mean arterial pressure was 95.0 mm Hg (+/-SEM, +/-4.7 mm Hg) in the DFSD-treated group and 70.0+/-5.0 mm Hg in the gauze dressings-treated group. The difference persisted for the remainder of the study (P=.01). Conclusion: The DFSD was super ior to gauze in decreasing blood loss and maintaining blood pressure w hile retaining the simplicity of standard dressing application.