Battelle, Halyard Health to Work on Conformal Cover for Severly Injured Limbs

The Office of Naval Research has awarded Battelle and Halyard Health with a $14.4 million four-year contract to create a conformal cover to help lessen damage and tissue loss on traumatic injuries.

Battelle’s Protective Oxygenating Wrap for Enhanced Recovery is a portable device designed to suppress microbe proliferation and deliver oxygen to maintain tissue health and improve recovery time of the patient, Battelle said Tuesday.

The company added that they aim to integrate medical ingredients, wound dressing materials and oxygen to the device in order to help medics in the field treat injured limbs.

“When a limb is severely injured, the best practice is to encase it as-is and get it to a surgical theater as fast as possible,” said Joe Berger, Battelle’s Consumer, Industrial and Medical Technologies group vice president.

“Believe it or not, what’s being used now to address such injuries actually promotes the growth of harmful microorganisms and necrotic tissue,” he explained.

Dr. Tim Bentley, ONR’s Program Manager, noted that corpsman and medics will carry the device on the battlefield.

“It will be designed to be light-weight and keep the wound fresh and maintain tissue condition for up to 72 hours, which is particularly important as we plan for future scenarios where prolonged field care will be required.”

The development of the device falls under the ONR’s Acute Care Cover for Severely Injured Limbs  project, which is in its design concept stage with its prototype stage scheduled by late 2017.