TK-4L Tourniquet

rcm_18d · 10-31-2009, 08:20

This is the TK-4L Tourniquet. I teach for the Navy and have been fighting this device since I was told it is the main tourniquet given to the sailors under the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command(NECC). There was a study conducted with the Navy Experimental Dive Unit (NEDU) in which this tourniquet was deemed the best! If anyone would like to see the study I can provide it to you! Tactical Combat Causality Care (TC3) standards calls for the tourniquet to have a mechanical advantage to meet the standard. I was told that if it does not stop the bleeding it will at least slow it down by the individuals making the decision on what the sailor carries and is trained on. This is the complete wrong train of thought. I was then told that they believed the TC3 committee will only recommend their products. I just let that go and tried another angle with no results. The course we teach has been going for almost two years and the TK-4L is still in the inventory and curriculum. The bottom line is the decision makers stated they had no data to suggest the tourniquets don't work. When I asked if they needed to have a sailor die to prove the fact that is sucks the meeting went down hill. Does anyone have any more studies or ammo that would allow us to attempt another fight!

Dragbag036 · 10-31-2009, 10:07

Just a question for clarification. So I assume they have seen the evaluation that was conducted by Ft.Sam on battle field tourniquets on human volunteers? If not I have the study as well.

swatsurgeon · 11-01-2009, 12:19

The Navy was the dept. that commissioned the TQ tests: methods/objectives and tested most of the 'major' players. I heard the tests are being done again.
We have discussed these issues here , with references as I recall.
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