NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Determining blood loss
at the scene of trauma can be critical to successful patient treatment.
Health care workers such as emergency medical technicians have used
visual estimation, which can be highly inaccurate, as their only means
of determining volumes of blood loss. A new, simple method developed by
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School may drastically improve their accuracy.
A team led by Dr. Mark Merlin, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
and medical director of emergency medical services at Robert Wood
Johnson University Hospital, has developed the MAR Method, which relies
upon a person’s fist to determine external blood loss.
In a
clinical trial designed by Merlin, increments of human whole blood were
measured. The researchers compared the anterior (palm side) surface of
the fist to the surface area of blood present and created a formula
averaging blood per fist. They determined that a fist covers a surface
area of blood that equals roughly 20 mL. Read the entire University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey article UMDNJ Physicians Develop Method Using Fist to Estimate Blood Loss at Scene of Trauma<< by clicking this link.
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