Using haemostats effectively in pre-hospital care

The purpose of this month's Clinical Skills column is to provide safe and effective best practice guidance for the use of haemostatic agents, or haemostats, in the pre-hospital environment. The topic of haemostats will be discussed in relation to what they are, how they work, as well as the when, where and how to use them for best effect. Haemostats themselves are straightforward to use and apply—the more interesting aspect is understanding when to use them.

The concept of blood clotting and its benefits in preventing blood loss is well understood. When a patient haemorrhages severely, they lose the medium to transport oxygen around the body; and without oxygen, our cells die (Martini, 2006). With this in mind, it is important to understand and appreciate the value of a substance that rapidly prevents blood loss by creating a swift clotting process.

To understand haemostats, Celox^©-type agents will be used as examples within this article, as they are commonly used in UK pre-hospital practice (Celox Medical, 2018). A haemostat is a collective group of substances that creates a rapid clotting process which does not follow the normal clotting cascade.