As mass shootings continue to make headlines and gun sales surge nationwide, a sponge-injecting device designed to patch life-threatening bullet wounds in war is making a domestic debut.

The device, called XSTAT 30, acts like a syringe that squirts out 92 tiny, compressed cellulose sponges coated with a blood-sopping absorbent. Together, the sponges can take in about a pint of blood and swell enough to completely fill-in a wound, creating a physical barrier for blood flow. That plugging-power may be enough to prevent life-threatening blood loss as a patient is rushed to an emergency medical facility, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

On Tuesday, the agency approved the use of XSTAT in civilian adults and adolescents.

The move comes more than a year after the FDA approved XSTAT for use by the military. XSTAT’s developer, RevMedX, originally designed the sponges to fill in combat-related bullet or shrapnel wounds in areas of the body where a tourniquet won’t work, such as the armpit or groin.

“When a product is developed for use in the battlefield, it is generally intended to work in a worst-case scenario where advanced care might not be immediately available,” William Maisel, acting director of the Office of Device Evaluation in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement. “It is exciting to see this technology transition to help civilian first responders control some severe, life-threatening bleeding while on the trauma scene.”

About 30 to 40 percent of civilians who die from traumatic injuries do so because of blood loss, according to the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research. Of those deaths, up to 56 percent occur before the wounded patients make it to an emergency room.

Once a patient reaches a medical facility, the sponges can be easily plucked out. And each sponge contains an X-ray-detectable marker, to ensure that no sponges are left behind.

Though XSTAT is not cleared for use in certain parts of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis, when appropriate, up to three sponge-packed devices can be used on a single patient with a life-threatening wound.