PRELIMINARY REPORT THE ITCLAMP CONTROLS JUNCTIONAL BLEEDING IN A LETHAL SWINE EXSANGUINATION MODEL

Objective. Severe hemorrhage is a leading cause of death and difficult to control even by trained medical personnel. Current interventions have significant limitations in the pre-hospital setting; therefore, a need exists for a new and ef-fective treatment. iTraumaCare has designed a temporary wound closure device, the iTClamp, which controls external hemorrhage from open wounds within compressible zones. The device approximates the wound edges, sealing the skin within a pressure bar, enabling creation of a hematoma and subsequent clot formation. The objective of this study is to test the effectiveness of the iTClamp to control exter-nal bleeding due to a major vascular injury to the groin in an in vivo swine model. Methods. Twenty Yorkshire-cross male swine were enrolled in this study. A complex groin injury was created by complete excision of the femoral artery and vein along with some surrounding muscle. The animals were divided into four treatment groups: control (no treatment), early iTClamp treatment, late iTClamp treat-ment, and standard gauze treatment. Survival rate, surviva