Change in CAT tourniquets from 6th to 7th generation 🕖 Reading Time, 4 minutes In October 2015, the 6th generation Combat Application Tourniquet, or CAT, with its double-eyelet buckle was discontinued, in favor of the 7th generation CAT which has …
MARCH: Massive Hemorrhage, Airway, Respiration, Circulation, Hypothermia Prevention
The easy to remember mnemonic MARCH reminds us of the priorities in treating casualties during TECC and TCCC situations. MARCH provides a framework to address immediate life threats and gives an organized approach to begin a casualty evaluation. The MARCH mnemonic is preferable to the ABCDE model because it takes into consideration the reason you need an airway and to be breathing is to circulate blood to the casualty’s brain. Recognizing that, the first step in our casualty evaluation should be to look for massive hemorrhage.
Once past massive hemorrhage, A-R-C is loosely approximated by A-B-C. H- is a reminder that a large number of traumatic casualties arrive at the emergency department or medical treatment facility hypothermic which dramatically increases their death rate.
The MARCH mnemonic can be applied to any patient, as the initial casualty evaluation usually rules out massive hemorrhage.
Knowing the quantity of blood loss helps estimate the likelihood of shock 🕖 Reading Time, 5 minutes Having a sense of how much blood a trauma patient “spilled” on the ground can be very helpful for understanding and estimating the …
🕖 Reading Time, 3 minutes Once a casualty’s massive hemorrhage is controlled, rescuers must turn our attention to the rest of the M-A-R-C-H pneumonic, specifically, to hypothermia prevention. Does the casualty have an open airway, or do they need help …
🕖 Reading Time, 3 minutes In our race to use tourniquets for controlling hemorrhage, we often lose sight of the value of good direct pressure as a hemorrhage control technique. Proven commercially available tourniquets are almost always going to be …
🕖 Reading Time, 1 minutes An OPS Core Helmet or Cairns Fire Helmet used to stop junctional hemorrhage with two CAT tourniquets. Proof of concept of a junctional hemorrhage tourniquet idea first suggested by Full Spectrum Training, now proven with …
It is not a tourniquet if if does not have a windlass. 🕖 Reading Time, 7 minutes Recent news articles describe many cases of the public placing “tourniquets” without windlasses on injured individuals to stop bleeding. However, if you look …