Biceps injury

We recently had a case where we used Celox-hemostat. The situation was a public beach with 35-year-old man had stumbled into the lake when descending steps. His right arm caught a nail on the inside of the railing, about 3-5cm protruding. Result of the accident laceration to biceps were about 5cm deep and 10cm long flowing across the wound, which was bleeding a lot.

Bystanders who were present had assisted the person out of the stairs closer to the shore where he had been placed lying on the wharf. They tried to press the bleeding site, but the bleeding did not stop. Next, the belt was put as a tourniquet and it helped a bit, but bleeding did not stop.

Our arrival at the scene the man was conscious. The skin was pale and cool (of course, wet from the water and in the open air). Due to the depth of the wound, we decided to try the hemostat. Wound was cleaned then we put the powdered hemostat directly to the wound, after which the wound was pressed, according to the instructions of about 4-5 minutes and we took the tourniquet off. The bleeding was stopped. The amount of bleeding was difficult to assess due to the environment. Bystander descriptions of the bleeding appeared to have been the vein, not an artery. Ambulance arrival time to the scene lasted for about 6 minutes. The patient’s level of consciousness was losing in the transfer phase. The first blood pressure was about 80/50 level, but well resolved with a little liquids