Field Fluid Heating Device Helps Prevent Hypothermia

The HypothermX HX100 device is designed to warm IV fluids, blood, or blood products infused into a patient via sterile fluid paths with the intent to treat traumatic, environmental, procedure related and/or induced hypothermia. The heating is accomplished via a flameless hydrocarbon combustion process fueled with an isobutane/propane mixture, thereby eliminating the need for external power to operate. The device can also work in a closed-loop heating mode, whereby the patient’s own blood is extracted, heated, and re-infused.

The light weight device offers therapeutic warming in the field for injured patients for up to four hours, and is capable of warming up to five liters of saline introduced at 15 °C and 15 units of packed red blood cells introduced at 5 °C to 38 °C, with an infusion rate of between 50–200 mL/min in ambient conditions of 0–40 °C. The system has numerous safety features, including the ability to temporarily silence alarms based on operational needs. The HypothermX IV and blood warming device is a product EMIT Corporation (Houston, TX, USA), and has received the European Community CE marking of approval.

“The documented improvement in clinical outcomes with first responder administration of blood, plasma, and blood products at the point of injury, as quickly as possible, is enabled with our product,” said Jeffery Sheldon, Chairman and CEO of EMIT. “The product's ease of use and ability to warm sufficient resuscitative fluid volume over unmatched timeframes makes it ideal for military, air medical transport, mobile, remote, austere, and power challenged environments.”

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