Emergency preservation and resuscitation in exsanguination cardiac arrest: science fiction to future reality?

Non-compressible torso hemorrhage (NCTH), leading to exsanguination cardiac arrest, remains the primary cause of preventable death in combat trauma. As the future operational environment shifts toward large-scale combat operations (LSCO) with delayed evacuations and increased casualty volumes, existing damage control strategies may prove inadequate due to limited resources and delayed evacuation. In 1984, US Army Colonel Ronald Bellamy challenged military medicine to develop new interventions for hemorrhagic shock, emphasizing the need for technologies that could ‘buy time’ for evacuation and surgical intervention. Decades later, Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation (EPR), which induces a hypometabolic state through profound hypothermia, offers a potential solution to this problem. This review summarizes the historical evolution of the EPR concept, from early military observations to modern preclinical and clinical advancements in EPR. We explore emerging technologies, such as portable extracorporeal life support systems (eg, MobyBox and CARL), organ perfusion platforms (BrainEx and OrganEx) and adjunctive pharmacologic agents (eg, Frunexian, PEG-20K, TAT-PHLPP9c and mitochondrial transplantation), that can enhance the efficacy of EPR, leading to optimized organ recovery. These innovations provide a foundation for developing resource-expedient EPR capabilities tailored for future battlefields. By synthesizing current evidence and examining the military context of prolonged casualty care, this paper outlines how EPR could meet Bellamy’s challenge and serve as a next-generation tool for combat casualty care. As military medicine prepares for future conflicts, EPR may provide a critical capability to reduce mortality from NCTH and revolutionize combat trauma management in LSCO scenarios.