Images: Ultrasound heads for battle

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Project purpose

Ultrasound technology is best-known for its use in producing images of fetuses in the womb. But focused beams of high-intensity sound waves also can be used to stop internal bleeding--an ultrasound application that Philips Research, with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, hopes to adapt for use on the battlefield, where many injuries become fatal because internal bleeding is not stopped in a timely way.
This series of images and their accompanying narrative depict how such an ultrasound device might be used in a battlefield situation.

Published: July 20, 2006 -- 15:56 GMT (08:56 PDT)
Caption by: Bill Detwiler
Preparing injured area

Preparing the injured area for the ultrasound cuff.

Published: July 20, 2006 -- 15:56 GMT (08:56 PDT)
Caption by: Bill Detwiler
High-intensity ultrasound

The device would then focus high-intensity ultrasound pulses on the internal injury--a ruptured artery, in this case.

Published: July 20, 2006 -- 15:56 GMT (08:56 PDT)
Caption by: Bill Detwiler
Pulses generate heat

The ultrasonic pulses generate heat on the injured area, causing blood tissue to coagulate.

Published: July 20, 2006 -- 15:56 GMT (08:56 PDT)
Caption by: Bill Detwiler
Rupture is stabilized

Once the rupture is stabilized, the soldier can be transported without further damage to the injured limb.

Published: July 20, 2006 -- 15:56 GMT (08:56 PDT)
Caption by: Bill Detwiler