FDA approves clinical trial for potentially life-saving trauma foam

BOSTON – The FDA has approved the use of a potentially lifesaving foam on patients in a clinical trial at a Boston hospital. Called ResQFoam, it was created to quickly stop internal bleeding in trauma patients.

"It's remarkable and it's very exciting for us," Dr. David King, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, told CBS Boston.

The product was developed by Dr. King and a team from Arsenal Medical in Watertown, Massachusetts. Now, the FDA says it can be used in a study of up to 40 patients at Mass General.

King said it will allow doctors "to intervene and temporarily stop bleeding patients essentially the moment they arrive in the emergency department."

The foam starts as two liquids injected into the body through the belly button, then it expands in the abdomen.

"It wraps around injured tissues and injured organs and puts gentle pressure on them which temporarily slows or stops hemorrhage," he explained.

As a surgeon in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps, King knows how critical time is when it comes to blood loss. He has treated fellow soldiers on the battlefield and victims of trauma on the home front.

"When you're suffering from internal bleeding, we don't know how much time you have because no one can see what types of injuries you have on the inside," King said.

He said he hopes ResQFoam will give many more patients a fighting chance.