A lightly applied tourniquet is used to engorge your veins prior to venipuncture. While a tourniquet can be used to stop catastrophic blood loss, it rarely is used for this and probably should be used less than it is. Here's why: If you have a bleeding forearm, a tourniquet proximal to the wound can be cranked down to stop ALL bloodflow. The good news is the bleeding has stopped. The bad news is all the blood distal to the tourniquet is quickly deoxygenating, and the blood and the tissue it was feeding is now in the process of dying. So are agents of the immune system in that area. And, as there's an open wound, the risk if infection is high, and increases every second. There quickly comes a point where the contents of the forearm below the tourniquet are quite septic. At this time, releasing the tourniquet floods a compromised body with a surprisingly heavy bacterial and viral load as well as a quantity of deoxygenated blood which will oxygenate very quickly indeed, which is clearly undesirable. The alternative is amputation. If there were no alternative, we could discuss this in sepulchral tones and figure we're saving a life at the cost of a limb. But we aren't. Nearly ANY wound on an extremity can be controlled by direct pressure. This includes guillotine amputations and a variety of other horrors. I imagine that somewhere out there, there's a wound so bad that I'd need to tourniquet it, but then I'd have to wonder if even a tourniquet would be enough? At that rarified point, there may be no good answer. In short, once the staple of battlefield medicine, the tourniquet is rarely used in a first aid context except for venipuncture nowadays.
The tourniquet constricts the flow of venous blood in the arm and makes the veins more prominent so they are easier to find and penetrate with a needle. Texas School of Bussiness Student in Houston TX
tourniquet
A tourniquet may be used to aid in venipuncture to make accessing veins easier, or in preventing life-threatening bleeding.
tourniquet
The correct spelling is "tourniquet". A tourniquet is a device used to apply pressure to a limb or extremity to control bleeding.
A device used to stem the flow of blood is called a tourniquet. It is typically used to stop severe bleeding in emergency situations until professional medical help arrives.
The Tourniquet was created on 2005-05-30.
No, never put a tourniquet at the waist or neck.
The Collected Works of Tourniquet was created in 1996.
Use a tourniquet, Apply direct pressure, and Elevate and immobilize
Tourniquets should only be used when profuse bleeding is present which can not be controlled or stopped by other means.
what is the maximum amount of time a tourniquet should left on
You've offered to apply a Band-Aid, when what I need is a tourniquet. Please don't apply a tourniquet unless you are certain that you can quickly deliver this patient to a doctor. Because direct pressure has not stopped the blood from gushing out of the wound, a tourniquet seems to be necessary.