The Return of Tourniquets

Uncontrolled hemorrhage from isolated penetrating extremity wounds can result in 100% mortality, but significant controversy still surrounds tourniquet use in civilian prehospital care. It’s been proposed that 10% of combat deaths in the Vietnam War resulted from uncontrolled hemorrhage from extremity wounds; many of the deaths were due solely to ineffective field hemorrhage control methods.1 Multiple U.S. and foreign military reports confirm the importance of tourniquets in controlling exsanguination on the battlefield.2,3 As a result, the use of tourniquets is now actively promoted in the U.S. military, with all service personnel carrying a tourniquet with their gear.2