Thread: TQ Protocols
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Old 05-11-2006, 07:01   #10
swatsurgeon
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Phoenix, AZ
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I'm not sure who is teaching that method (placed high, then move low) but that is not a standard of care I have ever seen, read about or taught. It makes no sense......tourniquet use, by design and by practice should have it immediately above the injury. There is NO WAY the tourniquet should be 'in the way'. The salvage rate for limbs would go down if the device were left 'high'....sometimes even for a short time. The chance of a compartment syndrome in the next higher level muscle compartmewnt would be a threat to limb survival that we don't worry about when it is placed JUST ABOVE the injury.
I would be happy to have those instructors have an open debate here or any place of their choosing on the technique thay are teaching. Are they Trauma surgeons, medics, nurses, techs or what. Is their training in the real world worrying about the patient from time of injury to discharge from the hospital or transfer to rehab for prosthesis fitting?
Please note that I am not referencing military medicine, only civilian law enforcement. I teach this stuff and an concerned as hell that someone is teaching a more dangerous method of tourniquet use....this is why they fell 'out of favor' years ago.

ss
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'Revel in action, translate perceptions into instant judgements, and these into actions that are irrevocable, monumentous and dreadful - all this with lightning speed, in conditions of great stress and in an environment of high tension:what is expected of "us" is the impossible, yet we deliver just that.
(adapted from: Sherwin B. Nuland, MD, surgeon and author: The Wisdom of the Body, 1997 )

Education is the anti-ignorance we all need to better treat our patients. ss, 2008.

The blade is so sharp that the incision is perfect. They don't realize they've been cut until they're out of the fight: A Surgeon Warrior. I use a knife to defend life and to save it. ss (aka traumadoc)
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