Excessive Bleeding Control

In the 2015 European resuscitation council changes there was clarification on what is called excessive bleeding. This type of bleeding is immediately life threatening and could be blast injuries, amputation of a limb or other serious injuries.  It is important to note that these are only used in excessive blood loss where conventional dressings are not effective. 

The recommendations added the use of tourniquets and haemostatic dressings.  Both of these have been used successfully in the military and emergency services all over the world.  A tourniquet is a strap that is tightened above the injury site on a limb and tightened to stop all blood flow after that point.  Care has to be taken with these as they can do a lot of damage and there are special rules.  Tourniquets are used as a last resort in controlling bleeding.

Haemostatic dressings are impregnated with a special clotting agent. which reacts with the blood to clot and stop the bleeding. Common brands are Celox, HemCon and QuickClot.  These dressings are also suitable for those who have problems with blood clotting in serious accidents.   Haemostatic dressings are ideal on any part of the body and there are dressings that are gauges that can be packed into a wound then another dressing placed over the top to hold in p,ace.

This video is just an insight into theses methods of controlling excessive bleeding and if you are working in a high risk area where you may need them, you can get further training on their effective use.