Objective
This work sought to 1) establish a reliable gunshot model of junctional femoral artery rupture in swine that accurately simulates field rescue conditions, and 2) use the gunshot model to compare the efficacy and ease of application of zeolite nanometer hemostatic gauze with other hemostatic materials,
Methods
36 healthy landrace swine (body weight 50 ± 5 kg) were randomly divided into three groups which were treated with Combat Gauze (CG), FeiChuang hemostatic gauze (FG), or standard medical gauze (SG). A gunshot model of femoral artery hemorrhage in landrace swine was used with portable ultrasound to accurately position the wound. After the shooting, when mean arterial pressure (MAP) of swine decreased by at least 30% for 10 seconds, wounds were pressed with standard packing (39 g) of gauze materials for 3 minutes to stop bleeding, and then bandaged with pressure. Blood samples were taken 15 min before injury, then 10 min, 30 min, and 60 min after injury to determine hemodynamic, coagulation, and arterial blood gas indexes. Wound temperatures were taken at 5 min, 10 min, 30 min, and 60 min after injury, and survival times were recorded.
Results
The CG (11.15 ± 3.09 ml/kg) and FG (12.19 ± 3.5 ml/kg) groups had significantly less blood loss than the SG group (16.8 ± 5.14 ml/kg) (P = 0.04; P = 0.039, respectively). After gauze packing, bleeding in CG (5.85 ± 1.17 ml/kg) and FG (5.37 ± 0.93 ml/kg) groups remained significantly lower than that of SG group (6.93 ± 1.03 ml/kg) (P = 0.011; P = 0.003, respectively). Wound temperature rose with time for all groups (p = 0.000). The wound temperatures in the FG group and the CG group were significantly higher than that of the SG group, (p = 0.004 and 0.009, respectively). Survival rates and times were not significantly different among the three groups, though the FG group had the longest average survival time (SD 204.8 s), compared with SG group (SD 177.8 s) and CG (SD 187.5 s) groups. No significant differences in hemodynamics, blood gas, and coagulation were observed among the three groups.
Conclusions
The gunshot model of junctional femoral arterial hemorrhage guided by ultrasound had high accuracy for femoral arterial rupture by bullet wound, and provided consistent and reproducible field-simulation conditions for comparison of hemostatic materials. Feichuang zeolite hemostatic gauze effectively controlled bleeding without excessive heat, as found in other zeolite-based products. However, improvements to application technique, such as a packing device are needed to improve operating time.