Some surgeons in Ukraine are maximizing novel technologies for treating soldiers who are wounded.
Human Acellular Vessels (HAVs)
According to Yahoo! News, human acellular vessels (HAVs) are a novel medical device that arrived in Ukraine's battlefield. These devices are designed for treating vascular injuries that are traumatic and that mostly result from shrapnel or blasts. These devices are also bioengineered from human cells.
Carthage College explains that these HAVs are meant to be a surgical alternative to the usual vascular grafts. At present, HAVs have aided 18 soldiers who were injured.
Vascular surgeon Oleksandr Sokolov, mentioned to Insider that these HAVs have been utilized for simple vascular reconstructions and complicated and contaminated wounds. Dr. Sokolov further explains that HAVs could come in handy in military and civil medicine, especially when it comes to treating gunshot and shrapnel wounds and when massive casualties take place.
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The Dangers of Vascular Injuries
According to Business Insider, vascular injuries prevalently lead to preventable deaths in a military combat context. These injuries are also leading precursors to amputation.
Damage to blood vessels may result in limb loss if the blood supply is cut off. This could also result in death if damaged arteries lead to excessive blood loss.
Tampa General Hospital explains that vascular trauma comes in two main types. The first one, a blunt injury, occurs when a vein or artery gets crushed, stretched, twisted, or pinched. The second one is a penetrating injury, which happens when a vein or artery ends up punctured, torn, or pierced.
According to a report from 2009 to 2015 in Afghanistan, vascular trauma accounted for almost 20% of the combat injuries experienced by US soldiers. 30% of these were due to gunshot injuries, while 70% were due to fragments of explosions.
Per Yahoo! News, the hope is for HAVs to offer a better option than current techniques for vascular replacement. Vascular surgeons typically use grafts to treat vascular trauma injuries. The preferred technique usually involves taking a vein from a certain part of the body and grafting it into the area of injury.
However, in cases where the vein is unavailable, surgeons may utilize a prosthetic blood vessel that is made of synthetic materials. Both methods are effective, but at the same time, both of them come with certain drawbacks.
Due to the immediate availability of HAVs, drawbacks can be avoided. Moreover, due to their being made of human cells, they have low rates of infection, based on clinical trials.
HAVs in Ukraine
Yahoo! News explains that, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, surgeons from the country connected with Humacyte, the company behind the HAV creation. The company collaborated with the Office of International Programs of the FDA and the Ukrainian Ministry of Health to release experimental HAVs on the battlefield.
CEO and founder Laura Niklason explains that they shipped vessels to five hospitals on the frontlines in June 2022.
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