• John F Kragh, Michelle L O'Neill, Thomas J Walters, John A Jones, David G Baer, Leigh K Gershman, Charles E Wade, and John B Holcomb.
• U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, 3400 Rawley E. Chambers Avenue, Bldg 3611, Rm 282-4, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234-6315, USA.
• Mil Med. 2011 Jul 1; 176 (7): 817-23.

BackgroundIn prior reports of active data collection, we demonstrated that early use of emergency tourniquets is associated with improved survival and only minor morbidity. To check these new and important results, we continued critical evaluation of tourniquet use for 6 more months in the current study to see if results were consistent.MethodsWe continued a prospective survey of casualties and their records at a combat support hospital in Baghdad who had tourniquets used at a combat hospital in Baghdad (NCT00517166 at ClinicalTrials.gov).ResultsAfter comparable methods were verified for both the first and current studies, we report the results of 499 patients who had 862 tourniquets applied on 651 limbs. The clinical results were consistent. No limbs were lost from tourniquet use.ConclusionWe found that morbidity was minor in light of major survival benefits consistent with prior reports.

21 keywords...

hide…