Tourniquets, types and techniques in emergency prehospital care: A narrative review

Roger William Freire Ronconi1, Livia Helena Moreira2, Carlos José de Lima2

  • 1Biomedical Engineering Institute, Universidade Anhembi Morumbi UAM, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil; Biomedical Engineering Department, Center for Innovation, Technology and Education CITE, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil; Tacmed Brasil, Taubaté, São Paulo, Brazil.

Massive uncontrolled hemorrhage is an important cause of preventable death in trauma. Therefore, applying an arterial tourniquet (TQ) is recommended as a pre-hospital measure to control bleeding after severe traumatic bleeding. Limb TQ applies circumferential compression proximally to the injury site to compress the arteries, resulting in blood flow and consequently hemorrhage interruption. The use of commercial tourniquets (C-TQ), which are designed, tested, and registered to control hemorrhages in pre-hospital care, is a consensus. However, they are still uncommon in many prehospital emergency services and the overall level of evidence in most studies is low. This narrative review aimed to characterize the importance of tourniquets use in prehospital emergency care and its application techniques. Furthermore, it proposes to stimulate the development of new devices, more accessible and easier to use, to suggest new directions of studies and medical education demands, with manikin and simulation development.

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