Do you Know about Tourniquets?

The tourniquet is a medical product that has been widely used in recent years in the medical and emergency fields. It has been widely praised in recent times as a product that is easily accessible and easy to use in many scenarios. In fact, as early as the Middle Ages, there is traceable historical evidence that there have been preliminary applications of tourniquets in the battlefield.

The inability to effectively control bleeding in a timely manner is a major cause of death in patients with salvageable trauma, and the use of tourniquets can provide a temporary stop to bleeding and can cope with the relative lack of resources. "A tight band is wrapped around the top and bottom of the amputation site to relieve pain and reduce bleeding." With this strategy, the prototype tourniquet was born. Various methods of use were derived from this, such as using a stick to tighten the tourniquet over the amputation site and applying pressure to the tourniquet to hold it in place. Over time, tourniquets have been improved and refined.

The most widely used tourniquet in the field today is the rotary nylon tourniquet, which consists of a nylon webbing and a nylon or metal rod that is rotated to apply force to the wound.

The CAT Tourniquet, named Best Pre-Hospital Tourniquet in the February 2008 issue of the Trauma Journal supplement. This is a true one-handed tourniquet. In testing, it was seen that the CAT was able to completely block blood flow to the limb in the event of severe bleeding from a traumatic wound. And the action of rotating the bar provides true circumferential pressure to the limb, and once sufficiently tightened, the bleeding stops. Then jamming the bar in the slot can help to stop the bleeding by applying continuous pressure until the paramedics arrive. This will prevent blood loss that could cause injury or death.

Spin tourniquets are characterized by ease of use, reliable hemostasis, portability, and can be tied directly to the outside of the fabric sleeve without having to touch the skin but can be used directly. If a rotary tourniquet does not stop bleeding effectively, a tourniquet can be added to the initial tourniquet to achieve better hemostasis.

As a single-use product, tourniquets from different manufacturers do not differ significantly in appearance, but the specific feeling of use varies greatly, and in critical situations, this can even determine the life and death of the injured person. Therefore, the quality of tourniquets is of paramount importance.

When choosing a tourniquet, you should first focus on the material of the webbing.

High-quality tourniquets are mainly made of nylon fabric. There are also some businesses that choose to use lower priced polyester or even PP fabric instead of nylon fabric in order to reduce costs. These three materials are difficult to identify by the naked eye, but can be detected by soaking or igniting.

First, take a small piece of fabric in the water, after it is completely wet, if it floats on the water, then it is the worst quality PP fabric.

Second, take a small piece of fabric and light it, if it burns with black smoke, and there are impurities after burning, then it is polyester fabric. If white smoke when burning, and after burning no impurities, then it is high-quality nylon fabric. Nylon fabric is more abrasion-resistant and denser than polyester and PP fabric, and can provide better protection and even force to press the muscles around the wound so as to physically stop bleeding.

The quality of the rod is also important. High quality tourniquets should have rods that do not break easily, and some use aluminum rods, which are stronger than nylon rods. 

Some aluminum rods are designed with a pencil in the middle of the rod to facilitate the recording of the time of use on the tourniquet webbing for subsequent treatment. High-quality tourniquets should have a net weight of at least 80 g. For example, Dragon Medical offers high-quality tourniquets that weigh between 80 g and 85 g and are made of high-quality nylon webbing and a strong nylon or aluminum rod.

In addition, when the body is traumatized, the brain's thinking and reaction speed may slow down, and concentration may not be possible, making it difficult to perform operations that require a high degree of delicacy. The CAT tourniquet is a first aid product that can be operated with one hand, so please practice right-handed and left-handed operation on others and yourself before applying it in practice. Watching training videos may be helpful, but there is no substitute for muscle memory gained through repetition, which is what is most useful on the battlefield.

I hope the above introduction to tourniquets and the memory of selecting the right tourniquet will help you.