The Stasilon bandage is made with specially woven glass fibers and bamboo to work with the body to stop bleeding in half the time of regular bandages.
NORTH CAROLINA -- The FDA just approved a new bandage made in North Carolina that some are calling a miracle.
The Stasilon bandage is made with specially woven glass fibers and bamboo to work with the body to stop bleeding in half the time of regular bandages.
"Your circulatory system has a surface area about the size of a football field. It's huge,” said inventor Dr. Thomas Fischer, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UNC. "We have stopped life threatening bleeding with this bandage. One way it works is vasoconstriction, it tells your vessels to clamp down and stop bleeding."
Stopping bleeding was Fischer’s inspiration for the bandage when he came back from conducting medical research in Iraq a few years ago.
Carolina Narrow Fabric of Winston-Salem weaves the Stasilon.
“Soldiers were extensively bleeding through gauze,” said Fischer. “Why can't we just design a common textile that would work with the hemostatic system to stop the blood flow?"
Some say the Stasilon bandage won’t just revolutionize wound care, but it could also revolutionize textiles in the state.
“It was invented here in North Carolina, it capitalizes on the North Carolina textile technologies, and we have a virtually unlimited capability of producing it here in our state,” said Stan Eskridge with Entegrion, the company with which Fischer invented the bandage.
"We always have the image in our mind of the soldier bleeding to death, unfortunately hundreds of images,” said Fischer.
Carolina Narrow Fabric of Winston-Salem weaves the Stasilon. Last week the FDA approved it for use in operating rooms and over the counter. Entegrion hopes to have the bandage available in stores soon.