The smart bandage benefits from two decades of dramatic developments in emergency and combat medicine. These new techs and procedures led to a reduction of combat deaths by more than half since 2003. This was the result of new treatments to deal wounds for which there was previously no battlefield treatment. That meant the victim would die before more extensive treatment could be applied.
Chief among these were deep (abdominal or thigh) wounds where large arteries (like the abdominal aorta) were opened. When that happens the victim bleeds to death in minutes. There have been several new battlefield treatments for catastrophic injuries like this. The first appeared in 2013 in the form of a belt that is placed on the abdomen and activated. A bladder inflates which puts sufficient pressure on the abdominal aorta to stop the bleeding or reduce it enough to make it possible to get the casualty to a surgeon.
The belt does not always work. This led, in 2014 to the introduction of another more thorough solution. This was XStat, a syringe-like device that injected nearly a hundred small cellulose sponges into deep wounds. The tiny sponges were infused with anti-bacterial and clotting chemicals that stop the most severe bleeding in 20 seconds or less. The latest version of Xstat sponges also contains a material that can be detected by X-rays and makes it possible for a surgeon to be sure all the tiny sponges are later removed.
and then they mention new bandages to enhance wound healing:
the new medical tech is coming to band aids or bandages for people with minor bleeding injuries like cuts or scrapes. Some people do not heal as quickly and these minor injuries can take a long time to heal. The solution is the self-monitoring polymer band-aids or bandages. This smart bandage tech has completed animal testing and now faces up to a decade of human tests and development of larger bandages before it is generally available.
this could be life and limb saving for diabetics.
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