Page 70 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Fall 2014

choosing which one to provide medics in the future. in effectiveness rate and 57 seconds less in average time
The present testing closely followed a similar study con- to effectiveness; future assessments may include learning
ducted by military physicians (J.F. Kragh Jr, unpublished metrics.
observations). In normal human volunteers and using
similar methods as to those in the present testing, the In summary, new evidence of junctional tourniquets
prior study was consistent with the current testing as used by medics for difficult inguinal bleeding indicates
it also found that the CRoC and SJT performed well that the SJT and the CRoC performed well and were
among the four models. preferred by the testers.

Limitations of the present testing are numerous. The
absence of the Navy and Air Force testers limits the Funding
generalizability of the results. The test plan was con- This project was funded with internal USAISR funds
strained by a common FDA-approved indication for in- and the Defense Health Program (Proposal 201105:
guinal bleeding; therefore, that was the region of use. Operational system management and post-market sur-
The axilla and other areas were unassessed; the AAJT veillance of hemorrhage control devices used in medical
was not cleared at the time of the testing for groin use care of US servicepersons in the current war).
except by central application through periumbilical aor-
tic compression.
Disclaimers
After the present testing occurred, the AAJT received a The opinions or assertions contained herein are the pri-
newly FDA-approved indication for unilateral groin ap- vate views of the authors and are not to be construed
plication. This new indication means that the AAJT can as official or reflecting the views of the Department of
now be placed directly on the inguinal area to control Defense or United States Government. The authors are
ipsalateral inguinal hemorrhage instead of being placed employees of the US Government. This work was pre-
on the periumbilical area for a unilateral inguinal hem- pared as part of their official duties and, as such, there is
orrhage. The two compression sites, periumbilical and no copyright to be transferred.
groin, for the inguinal indication in question for the
AAJT, appear to have substantially different pain levels
as the groin placement is more comfortable (M. Lyon, Disclosures
et al., unpublished observations). Because the present The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
test preceded clearance of direct inguinal application,
the test plan subsequently became biased against the
AAJT. The time allotted to training before testing was References
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the medics who were the users in the present test; the 5. Kragh JF Jr, Dubick MA, Aden JK 3rd, et al. US military
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62 Journal of Special Operations Medicine Volume 14, Edition 3/Fall 2014