So the Kaolin base are going to be ones from QuikClot. Combat Gauze^® is the most common one that you'll see in the military. It's also listed as the hemostatic of choice from the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC) guidelines. So Kaolin is basically a clay-based substance. It works on factor 12, which is one of the many factors in your coagulation cascade.

What it does is when it comes in contact with the blood, it promotes coagulation through the coagulation cascade. The other category of hemostatic is a chitosan-based gauze. This is the one that you may have heard about. It comes from shellfish. Um, and essentially what this does, it's a mucoadhesive.

So when you get it to a bleeding vessel, it forms a mucus-type layer that kind of adheses on. This attracts red blood cells and platelets to form a plug and stop bleeding. So it doesn't use the coagulation cascade like Kaolin does, which is why it's recommended in some patients that don't have an intact coagulation cascade.