Old Tricks for New Dogs? John Caddy and the Victorian Origins of TCCC.

The success of Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) in reducing potentially preventable combat deaths may rely on both specific interventions (such as tourniquets) and the systematized application of immediate care. Essential elements of a combat care system include clear specification of immediate care priorities, standardized methodology, and inclusion and training of all nonmedical personnel in early response. Although TCCC is fairly recent, the construct is similar to that first suggested during the mid-nineteenth century by John Turner Caddy (1822-1902), a British Royal Navy staff surgeon. Although naval warfare engagements at the time were relatively infrequent, casualties could be numerous and severe and often overwhelmed the small medical staff on board. Caddy recognized that nonmedical personnel properly trained in the fundamentals of combat injury management would result in lives saved and greatly improved morale. The novelty was in his attempt to make procedures simple enough to be performed by nonmedical personnel under stress. However, Caddy's guidelines were completely overlooked for nearly two centuries. The principles of best practice for managing combat trauma injuries learned in previous wars have often been lost between conflicts. Understanding the historical roots of combat first responder care may enable us to better understand and overcome barriers to recognition and retention of essential knowledge.

Two Decades of Saving Lives on the Battlefield: Tactical Combat Casualty Care Turns 20.

BACKGROUND: Twenty years ago, the original Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) article was published in this journal. Since TCCC is essentially a set of best-practice prehospital trauma care guidelines customized for use on the battlefield, the presence of a journal with a specific focus on military medicine was a profound benefit to the initial presentation of TCCC to the U.S. Military. METHODS: In the two ensuing decades, which included the longest continuous period of armed conflict in our nation's history, TCCC steadily evolved as the prehospital trauma care evidence base was augmented and as feedback from user medics, corpsmen, and pararescuemen was obtained. FINDINGS: TCCC has taken a leadership role in advocating for battlefield trauma care advances such as the aggressive use of tourniquets and hemostatic dressings to control life-threatening external hemorrhage; improved fluid resuscitation techniques for casualties in hemorrhagic shock; increased emphasis on airway positioning and surgical airways to manage the traumatized airway; faster, safer, and more effective battlefield analgesia; the increased use of intraosseous vascular access when needed; battlefield antibiotics; and combining good medicine with good small-unit tactics. With the continuing assistance of Military Medicine, these advances and the evidence base that supports them have been presented to TCCC stakeholders. DISCUSSION/IMPACT: Now-20 years later-TCCC has been documented to produce unprecedented decreases in preventable combat death in military units that have trained all of their members in TCCC. As a result of this proven success, TCCC has become the standard for battlefield trauma care in the U.S. military and for the militaries of many of our allied nations. Committee on TCCC members and the Joint Trauma System also work closely with civilian trauma colleagues through initiatives such as the Hartford Consensus, the White House Stop the Bleed campaign, and the development of National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians TCCC-based courses to ensure that advances in prehospital trauma care pioneered by the military on the battlefield are translated into civilian practice on the streets of America. Active shooter incidents, terrorist bombings, and the day-to-day trauma that results from motor vehicle accidents and criminal violence create the potential for many additional lives to be saved in the civilian sector. Along with the other components of the Department of Defense's Joint Trauma System, the Committee on TCCC, and the TCCC Working Group have been recognized as a national resource and will continue to advocate for advances in best-practice battlefield trauma care as opportunities to improve are identified.

Chapter 9 prehospital tourniquets: review, recommendations, and future research.

The tourniquet is a simple device that has been used since the Middle Ages. Although different variations have been designed throughout its history, the simplicity of design has remained. The history of tourniquets follows two distinct paths--the operating room and the prehospital setting. From the earliest recorded history, tourniquets have been used for surgical procedures which were originally to amputate war-ravaged limbs and then to create a bloodless field for routine limb surgery. This history has continued uninterrupted since the early 1900s with continued research to foster advances in knowledge. The history of tourniquets in the prehospital setting, however, has not progressed as smoothly. The debate regarding the use of a tourniquet to save a life from excessive limb hemorrhage began in the 1600s, and continues to this day. This chapter will explore the prehospital use of tourniquets, which may shed some light on where this debate originated. The current state of the knowledge regarding tourniquets will then be discussed with a focus on prehospital use, using the operating room literature when needed to fill knowledge gaps. The chapter will conclude with recommendations for prehospital tourniquet use and some areas for future research. Tourniquets are used for operative procedures within accepted clinical guidelines throughout the world as the standard of care. Current science supports a similar stance for the use of prehospital tourniquets within clinical guidelines.

[The tourniquet of Jean-Louis Petit]. / Apropos du tourniquet de Jean-Louis Petit.

In the early part of the 18th century the mechanization of Petit's tourniquet is one of the most outstanding medical inventions. During more than a century that tool without any noticeable change was in the surgical boxes in all countries. As the mechanic Peron has been intensely working to handcraft the device with the utmost urgency Petit's tourniquet could have become that of Petit and Peron.

[Tourniquet use in civil and military medicines]. / Le garrot en médecine d'urgence et militaire.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this literature review is, after a history and a point about current situation, to present the military use and precautions of use of tourniquet for civil and military medicine. DATA SOURCES: A review of the Anglo-Saxon and French literature was performed in PUBMED database, from 1962 to 2012. The research was conducted using the following keywords: "tourniquet", "complications", "haemorrhage", "emergency", "military medicine", used alone or in combination. DATA EXTRACTION: The extracted data concerned the history, the epidemiology, the interest of tourniquet during peacetime and wartime, adverse effects and the ratio benefit/risk. DATA SYNTHESIS: The tourniquet is "a device which is tightened, in case of haemorrhage, around a limb in order to slow or stop the venous or arterial circulation before surgery…". This item is thus used in surgery to reduce intraoperative bleeding and in emergency medicine as a rescue technique for bleeding places non accessible to compression or to other technical hemostasis. It is also used for treating bleeding of mass casualties. However, its use is too poorly managed by health professionals and it remains risky. Recent armed conflicts have yet revived its day use. CONCLUSION: The tourniquet has utility in times of war and in peacetime. In each case, indications and complications must be known.

Historical review of emergency tourniquet use to stop bleeding.

BACKGROUND: Although a common first aid topic, emergency tourniquets to stop bleeding are controversial because there is little experience on which to guide use. Absent an adequate historical analysis, we have researched development of emergency tourniquets from antiquity to the present. METHODS: We selected sources emphasizing historical development of tourniquets from books and databases such as PubMed. RESULTS: The history of the emergency tourniquet is long and disjointed, mainly written by hospital surgeons with little accounting, until recently, of the needs of forward medics near the point injury. Many investigators often are unaware of the breadth of the tourniquet's history and voice opinions based on anecdotal observations. CONCLUSIONS: Reporting the historical development of tourniquet use allowed us to recognize disparate problems investigators discuss but do not recognize, such as venous tourniquet use. We relate past observations with recent observations for use by subsequent investigators.

Surgical tourniquets in orthopaedics.

Higher levels of tourniquet pressure and higher pressure gradients beneath tourniquet cuffs are associated with a higher risk of nerve-related injury. Measurement of limb occlusion pressure can help to minimize tourniquet pressure levels and pressure gradients for individual patients and individual surgical procedures. Selective use of pneumatic, wider, and contoured tourniquet cuffs reduces tourniquet pressure levels and the applied pressure gradients.

Who was William Ray Rumel?

This report details the life and contributions of William Ray Rumel, an early cardiovascular surgeon known for his innovations, particularly the "Rumel tourniquet," and the ability to repair the diseased mitral valve without replacing it.

Retalho sural para reconstrução do pé / Sural flap for reconstruction of the foot

Introdução: as perdas de substância localizadas no pé mostram-se bastante desafiadoras quanto a sua reconstrução. Os retalhos livres microcirúrgicos eram primeira escolha quando se necessitava de uma cobertura mais elaborada. Com a publicação de Masquelet e Col. (1992), abriu-se uma nova possibilidade de tratamento dessas lesões. Objetivo: mostrar que o retalho neurocutâneo sural constitui-se numa alternativa efetiva para o tratamento de lesões extensas no pé. Métodos: o retalho sural foi utilizado em 24 pacientes, no período de 1990 a 2006. Descreve-se a técnica de confecção deste retalho para cobrir lesões situadas no pé. Resultados: todos os defeitos foram corrigidos, com baixo índice de complicações. Discussão: Os retalhos microcirúrgicos, por muito tempo, foram a opção principal para o tratamento de lesões extensas localizadas no pé. Para a realização deste procedimento faz-se necessária a participação de equipe especializada e material especial. O retalho neurocutâneo sural substitui, em parte, os retalhos microcirúrgicos, com a vantagem de apresentar menor dificuldade técnica, confecção mais rápida, pequena morbidade e ser eficaz. Conclusão: o retalho neurocutâneo sural é eficiente na cobertura de lesões com perda de substância no pé e substitui, em muitos casos, o retalho microcirúrgico.

Background: the reconstructions related to loose of foot substance are challenging. The microsurgical flaps were the first choice when a more elaborated coverture was needed. With Masquelet e Col's publication (1992) a new possibility of treating those lesions was opened: the sural neurocutaneus flap. Objective: to show that the sural neurocutaneus flap is an effective alternative to treat extensive injuries on the foot. Methods: the sural neurocutaneus flap was used to cover the traumatic injuries on the foot of 24 patients, between the years of 1990 and 2006. This flap is made from the vascularization that follows the sural nerve and has become an excellent option for the treatment of lost of foot substance. Resultads: all the flaps were corrected with a low complication average.Discussion: the microsurgical flap asforalong time the main option when itcametotreating extensive injuries on the foot. The sural neurocutaneus flap replaces, partially, this flap, with the advantage of presenting a lower technical difficulty and also for being produced quicker, with small morbidity. Conclusions: the sural neurocutaneus flap is efficient in covering injuries with lost of foot substance.

Cushing's clips.

Together with Sir William Macewen (1848-1924) and Sir Victor Horsley (1857-1916), Harvey Cushing (1869-1939) is recognised as one of the triumvirate of founders of the speciality of neuosurgery.