Traumagel looks a lot like what you might imagine a medkit would look like in Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, or even some of the Halo games…

The product Traumagel was registered as a medical device by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday and is roughly equivalent to a real-life version of the Halo Biofoam. Except instead of a green package, it’s a stimpak-like plastic dispenser with a 30ml syringe containing an algae- and fungus-based hemostatic gel with a color and consistency similar to hummus.

Traumagel can be used for severe bleeding from a gunshot wound. These could be treated with other products. Examples are QuickClot, a gauze impregnated with a chemical anticoagulant, or good old superglue. By comparison, Traumagel is a new solution, and according to Fast Company, it already looks promising.

“If you have a roll of gauze, you have to pack it into a gunshot wound inch by inch, and you have to make sure it’s in contact with what’s bleeding. It’s painful for the patient, and it’s dangerous because it can expose a paramedic or emergency physician to shrapnel or bone fragments. [Traumagel] finds its way to where it needs to go,” said Joe Landolina, founder of Traumagel developer Cresilon. Traumagel used to be called Vetigel when it was only used on injured animals, and Landolina says 91 percent of combat deaths are due to preventable bleeding, so if there was a better product to stop bleeding, lives could be saved.

Okay, so Traumagel isn’t exactly a stimpak that can instantly heal a broken leg in Fallout 3, but the real world isn’t exactly the same as, say, Bethesda Game Studios’ game from almost sixteen years ago. Or is it not a medkit that you can pick up in, say, one of the aforementioned UT episodes…

Source: PCGamer, Fast Company