How long can you leave a CAT tourniquet on?

Last Update: May 30, 2022

This is a question our experts keep getting from time to time. Now, we have got the complete detailed explanation and answer for everyone, who is interested!

BEST ANSWER: This item does not have an expiration date. However, we do recommend replacing it if it is stored in extreme conditions such as weather / temperatures and direct sunlight.

What is the shelf life of a tourniquet?

As long as you keep it out of UV Light it should last for 10 yrs. If blood gets on it, the tourniquet should be disposed due to biocontamination.

Do SWAT-T tourniquet expire?

In addition, the SWAT-T is one quarter the cost of the Combat Application Tourniquet. ... It can be used as a tourniquet, a pressure dressing, an occlusive dressing for chest injuries and a splinting wrap. It doesn't “expire” and can be reused nearly indefinitely in training.

How many times can you use a CAT tourniquet?

It is intended as one time use/single person device. Once applied, it is left in place, usually until the patient is in the emergency department or in surgery.

Can CAT tourniquets be reused?

Reusable tourniquet cuffs can be reused with confidence and safety if they are cleaned and inspected properly between each surgical procedure. ... All tubing should be cleaned, rinsed, and dried between patients and before storage, using an EPA-registered, detergent/intermediate-level disinfectant.

38 related questions found

Numerous studies have been performed to determine the maximum duration of tourniquet use before complications. The general conclusion is that a tourniquet can be left in place for 2 h with little risk of permanent ischaemic injury.

Conclusions: There was significant contamination of 68% of orthopaedic surgical tourniquets. These are used regularly in procedures involving the placement of prosthesis and metalwork, and can act as a potential source of infection. We recommend the use of sterile single-use disposable tourniquets where possible.

A tourniquet should be at least 4cm wide to prevent localised damage to nerves tissues. A tourniquet must be put on sufficiently tight to stop the bleeding. If it is not tight enough it can actually end up increasing blood loss. It may be necessary to apply more than one tourniquet to completely stop bleeding.

CONCLUSIONS The SWAT-T stretch and wrap style tourniquet can easily be properly applied and can stop arterial flow at a variety of extremity locations. Proper application is associated with cessation of arterial flow.

The patented Combat Application Tourniquet® (C-A-T®) featuring the proprietary red tip design and the mechanical advantage of a band within a band has been the Official Tourniquet of the U.S. Army since 2005. The innovations in the CAT are protected by U.S. Patent Nos. 7,842,067 and 7,892,253.

What Is a Tourniquet? A tourniquet is a device that is placed around a bleeding arm or leg. Tourniquets work by squeezing large blood vessels. The squeezing helps stop blood loss.

Our top pick for the best tourniquet is the Tac Med Solutions Gen 4 SOFT-W Tourniquet. It's easy to use, durable, military-approved, and relatively comfortable for patients. If you are on a budget, we recommend the Rapid Medical Gen 2 Rapid Tourniquet.

Therefore, first responders should carry at least two tourniquets. Tourniquets carried on the first responder are designed to manage one casualty, either for the first responder themselves or a single victim. In general, EMS systems that carry tourniquets may have one or two in a standard duty or trauma bag.

Medical supplies are way more likely to be used to save a life than anything else you can carry, and just carrying a tourniquet will allow you to stop bleeding on a good majority of wounds that would result in life-threatening blood loss. If you decide to only carry one item with you, it should be a tourniquet!

Leaving on too long: A tourniquet should not be left for longer than two hours. When applied for a longer time, tourniquets can cause permanent damage to muscles, nerves, and blood vessels.

A prolonged tourniquet time may lead to blood pooling at the venipuncture site, a condition called hemoconcentration. Hemoconcentration can cause falsely elevated results for glucose, potassium, and protein-based analytes such as cholesterol.

Belt - seems to be the number one thing people suggest using, however it's a poor choice for an improvised tourniquet. Under stress people will try to tighten a belt around a limb the same way it's tightened around a waist and that will never be tight enough to stop arterial flow.

Because of the potential for adverse effects, a tourniquet should be used only as a last resort in cases of delayed care or situations where response from emergency medical services (EMS) is delayed, when direct pressure does not stop the bleeding, or you are not able to apply direct pressure.

Tourniquet duration of 60 minutes or longer was not associated with increased amputations, but more rhabdomyolysis was present. Conclusion: Field TK use is associated with wound infection and neurologic compromise but not limb loss. This may be due to a more severe injury profile among TK limbs.

Remember that the tourniquet shouldn't be on for more than 1 minute because it can change the blood composition. If you're drawing multiple tubes, it's acceptable to keep the tourniquet on when you place a new tube as long as the total tourniquet time remains less than 1 minute.

In addition, the data show that tourniquets can be safely applied to an extremity for a period of up to 2 hours with no concern about amputation. In fact, there have been no amputations in the U.S. military as a direct result of tourniquet application in patients with an application time of 2 hours or less.

The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) First Aid Guidelines 2015 state that when direct pressure cannot control severe bleeding, tourniquets and haemostatic dressings are now advised. ILCOR (International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation) fully supports this

If someone is bleeding extremely heavily from either a major artery or vein, they can quickly lose a lot of blood. The bleeding is likely to pulsate in time with the heart. This is more pronounced with an arterial bleed, but happens within venous bleeds too. With extremely heavy, potentially catastrophic bleeding an adult could easily lose 40% of their blood volume in 3-4 minutes. This could be even quicker when dealing with children.

If a casualty loses a substantial amount of blood – more than 40% of their blood volume, the body is no longer able to compensate for that amount of blood loss. They will develop hypovolaemic shock.  Hypovolaemic shock is a low volume of blood causing failure of the circulatory system, if untreated they will die.

Military and civilian research has shown wealth of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of tourniquets and haemostatic dressings in the treatment of life-threatening bleeding.

Key changes in the new European Resuscitation Guidelines relating to bleeding:

1. New guidelines no longer recommend elevation for the control of severe bleeding. Elevation does reduce the flow of blood, but alone it will not stop bleeding. If someone has an arterial bleed, just holding it in the air is not going to stop the bleeding. Applying direct pressure to the source of bleeding is much more likely to stop life-threatening blood flow.
2. You should not use indirect pressure points to control severe bleeding. There is more than one artery supplying the blood to each limb. Pressing on pressure points will not be able to stop the blood flow. Finding pressure points can also be very difficult, particularly with the femoral artery.

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Treatment of Bleeding:

1. Encourage the casualty to sit or lie down in the most appropriate position for the location of the wound and the amount of blood lost. If they are feeling dizzy and showing early signs of shock, raise their legs.
2. Examine the wound (as quickly as possible) to assess:
   • The type and extent of bleeding.
   • The source of the bleeding.
   • Whether there are any foreign objects embedded in the wound – if so, do not remove them as they will be stemming bleeding, but apply direct pressure either side of the object.
3. Apply direct pressure to try and control bleeding. If you control the bleeding with this direct pressure, keep holding for 10 minutes as it takes this long for clots to form.
4. Once you control bleeding, dress the wound – if the wound bleeds through the first dressing, apply another on top. If the wound bleeds through the second dressing you should consider alternative options to stop the bleeding.

The first step when treating a catastrophic bleed is always to apply direct pressure. It is still likely to be the first and only solution needed for the casualty.

Please note:

Tourniquets and haemostatic dressings have been introduced as additional options to treat severe catastrophic bleeding. However, direct pressure remains the main choice of treatment and it will control bleeding in the vast majority of cases. The European Resuscitation Council 2015 guidelines state that haemostatic dressings and tourniquets should be used when direct pressure is either not possible or ineffective.

In environments where a catastrophic bleed is likely, tourniquets and haemostatic dressings should be an integral part of the first aid kit. All first aiders should be trained in their use.

As a member of the general public you are highly unlikely to need to use a tourniquet. However understanding how to improvise one, and how and when to use one, could save lives if you’re ever involved in a major medical accident or emergency.

Do Improvised Tourniquets Work?

There is ongoing debate around the usefulness of an improvised tourniquet: Stewart SK, Duchesne JC, Khan MA discussed this in their paper – Improvised Tourniquets: obsolete or obligatory: Journal of Trauma Acute Care Surg 2014;78;1. He came to the following conclusion:

“We propose that education on how to expertly construct and apply an improvised tourniquet becomes and integral part of basic life support and pre-hospital emergency care algorithms, for military and civilians alike. In the absence of a commercially produced tourniquet, this simple first aid measure can satisfactorily arrest life-threatening haemorrhage, while minimizing morbidity that other cruder designs may cause.”

How to Use an Improvised Tourniquet

Here is one of the easiest ways to make an improvised tourniquet from the contents of a standard first aid kit. Use a triangular bandage folded into a broad fold bandage and to tighten the tourniquet using scissors as a windlass. If you have access to cutlery, such as a table knife, this would be even better. Otherwise you no longer have your scissors available to use.

Please note: A tourniquet should be at least 4cm wide to prevent localised damage to nerve tissues.

• Tie the bandage around the bare limb on a single bone (i.e. if the lower part of the arm or leg are bleeding, you should tie the tourniquet on the upper part, where there is only one bone rather than two).
• The tourniquet should be at least 5cm above the wound, or 5cm above the joint if the wound is on the lower limb. Never place a tourniquet over a joint.

If there’s a clean cut through an artery, for example in a deep incised wound, the artery can contract back up the arm or leg. This is why you should place the tourniquet at least 5cm (or 2 inches) above the wound.

You may find other guidance on the positioning of a tourniquet, such as applying the first tourniquet mid-point over a single bone. This advice is also acceptable, so long as the tourniquet is positioned proximal to the wound (closer to the trunk of the body).

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1. Place the knife or your scissors on top of the knot and tie another knot on top of them.

2. Use the knife or your scissors as a windlass to wind round and tighten the tourniquet.

3. The windlass can be secured either by tying another triangular bandage to stop it unwinding or by wrapping and tying both ends of the triangular bandage around the ends of the windlass to ensure it remains in place.

Time Factor

It is important to note the exact time in which you applied the tourniquet. To arrange for urgent transfer for medical help, ensure you tell them where and when the tourniquet was applied.

Please note it will be extremely painful for the casualty to have a tourniquet. Howewver it is absolutely vital that you apply the tourniquet tight enough to entirely stop the bleeding.

If a tourniquet is not on tight enough it can make things worse as it can occlude the veins. Arteries may be harder to stop as they are less easy to get to. Moreover, if the venous return is stopped by the tourniquet, the only place for blood to come out is from the wound.

NEVER be tempted to loosen or remove a tourniquet. Once applied, tourniquets should only ever be removed by a doctor in a hospital setting.

Unsuitable but Tempting Alternatives for an Improvised Tourniquet:

A tie is likely to be too thin. A leather belt is also unsuitable as it is too tough to use with a windlass; you will be unable to provide sufficient force by hand to tighten it sufficiently to provide enough pressure to stop the blood flow.

A tourniquet should be at least 4cm wide to prevent localised damage to nerves tissues.

A tourniquet must be put on sufficiently tight to stop the bleeding. If it is not tight enough it can actually end up increasing blood loss. It may be necessary to apply more than one tourniquet to completely stop bleeding.

It is important for the doctor treating the casualty to have a good understanding of how long the tourniquet has been applied for. Write the time the tourniquet was applied onto the tourniquet itself or onto the casualty.

Please remember that although tourniquets can save lives, their use should not be taken lightly. They remain a second-line treatment when direct pressure is not possible or insufficient to control bleeding.

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