Development of a Large Animal Model for Investigating Resuscitation After Blast and Hemorrhage

Background Blast injuries are an increasing problem owing to the widespread terrorist threat, but hemorrhage remains the second leading cause of civilian trauma death. Against this background, increasing numbers of prehospital and military trauma organizations are advocating a hypotensive approach to resuscitation of the hypovolemic casualty, deliberately aiming not to achieve a normal blood pressure so as not to disturb any newly formed blood clots at the site of a vascular injury.