Ask a group of cosmetic surgeons to name the routine problems they would most like to eliminate. You might hear: daily post-op telephone calls from patients who need reassurance; complaints about neck and face dressings from claustrophobic surgery candidates; bruising; dead space; and the high cost of top-flight medical technology.

Tell the same surgeons a simple hemostat will be part of their solution. They probably won't believe you -- unless they've used CoStasis®.

"I routinely use CoStasis® on face lifts, forehead lifts, blepharoplasties, and abdominoplasties," said cosmetic surgeon Gregory Rauscher, a plastic surgery professor at the New Jersey College of Medicine in Newark. "Results are a lot quicker and very cost-effective -- patients have much less bruising, minimal scarring, and they're back to work earlier."

Plastic surgeon Alan Kisner -- who performs over 200 facelifts annually -- concurs.

"In my experience, patients who have had CoStasis® during the facelift procedure have generally had a faster return to socialization," said Kisner, chief of plastic surgery at the Huntington Hospital Division of the LIJ North Shore University Hospital System in Long Island, New York. "With CoStasis®, they have less bruising, absence of drains, minimal use of dressings and earlier mobilization."

Developed by Cohesion Technologies, Inc., liquid CoStasis® is the next generation of hemostats for the delicate procedures Drs. Rauscher and Kisner use to transform their often-equally-delicate patients. Four important blood-clotting factors activate this spray-on hemostatic breakthrough: collagen, thrombin and the patient's own platelets and fibrinogen -- not potentially unsafe blood sources pooled together from multiple donors.

"I've used other sealants that don't have the CoStasis® advantage of using a patient's own blood products," Rauscher said.

Supplied in two parts -- the plasma collection system and the surgical hemostat kit -- CoStasis® is quick and easy to prepare in six simple steps:

1) Draw the patient's blood into the CoStasis® plasma collection system
2) Centrifuge the blood
3) Transfer the plasma from the collection system to the sterile syringe
4) Attach the sterile plasma and CoStasis® syringes to the joiner
5) Assemble the delivery device
6) Apply CoStasis®

The ever-ready collagen/thrombin suspension requires no mixing or thawing and always stays fresh in its package. Absent a hemostat requirement, the hemostat kit may also stay in cold storage, incurring a fraction of the cost. Finally, the proprietary spray head minimizes clogging and may be used repeatedly.

To busy surgeons such as Dr. Rauscher, CoStasis® offers an additional -- and essential --benefit: it reduces the demands of an active schedule by reducing complications.

"We've seen considerably less post-operative phone calls from patients who need to know how fast they will heal," said Rauscher, who is also the section chief of the Division of Cosmetic Surgery at the Hackensack University College of Medicine. "And now, claustrophobic patients aren't as worried about constricting neck and face dressings."

Dr. Kisner believes these much-reduced complications result from "the powerful hemostatic and mild adhesive effects of CoStasis®. The product has an adhesive effect which is adequate to eliminate dead space -- as long as there is minimal tension on the skin," Kisner explained. "It allows the skin flap to be more easily contoured to the underlying anatomical structures."

Dr. Rauscher agrees -- enthusiastically.

"There is no question about the adhesive properties of CoStasis®," Rauscher said. "It clearly eliminates dead space by sealing -- and making dead space less likely to occur."

These advantages have quickly propelled CoStasis® well beyond competing products such as Tisseel®.

"I've used CoStasis® for a little over a year," Rauscher said. "Ninety eight percent of my patients opt for CoStasis® over Tisseel®. In fact, I haven't had one request for Tisseel® in five months."

Now ask a group of cosmetic surgeons to define the perfect hemostat.

The perfect hemostat (adj. and n. the pur-fikt hee-mo-stat) A hemostat that 1. Is spray applied for fast, uniform delivery over large or intricate surface areas. 2. Carries no risk of blood borne human pathogen transmission. 3. Contains collagen, a potent platelet activator. 4. Remains intact during the critical wound-healing period. 5. Is reabsorbed by the body.

The perfect hemostat (adj. and n. the pur-fikt hee-mo-stat): CoStasis®.

"I wouldn't use it if I weren't happy with it," Dr. Rauscher said. "CoStasis® is a great product."

CoStasis is manufactured by Cohesion Technologies, Palo Alto California and
distributed by United States Surgical. For more information on CoStasis call
United States Surgical at 1-800-722-8772; fax 1-800-544-8772, or contact your local USSDG Representative.

Contact a United States Surgical representative at _______, booth #______; or visit the product Web site at http://www.ussdg.com.