Page 33 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Fall 2017

Figure 4 Results by glove group for mean time as indexed to the Figure 6 Results of time versus use number with regression.
control group.

The chart depicts the plotted results of time to unwrap a packaged
tourniquet by the use number. Each dot is a mean time for all four
users. The preliminary association is weak. Use number is chronologic
for each user and, thus, is a surrogate of accrued experience. User ex-
perience was weakly associated with their speed of unwrapping.
Table 6 Thickness Measurements by Glove Group
Group Thickness of Glove Type (mm)
Bare hands 0
Examination gloves 0.1
The radial polar plot depicts the results of time to unwrap a packaged
tourniquet as a mean of four users for each glove group, however the Flight gloves 0.5
mean is indexed. Indexing each mean of a glove group to the mean Glove liners 0.5
of the control group was done by dividing the former by the latter. Leather gloves 0.75
Therefore, the plot axis is dimensionless. The clockwise order of glove
group is by thickness starting with thinnest at the top. Glove liners & leather gloves 1.25
Mittens 0.5
Figure 5 Results of time indexed for each user by glove group. Cold gloves 2
Cold gloves & mittens 2.5

Figure 7 Results of thickness by glove group.

The radial polar plot depicts the results of time to unwrap a packaged
tourniquet by each user for each glove group. However, the time is
indexed. Indexing here was of each user’s time by glove group divided The radial polar plot depicts the results of thickness for each glove
by that user’s minimum time. Therefore, the plot axis is dimension- group. The plot axis is in millimeters. The clockwise order of glove
less. This plot shows all 36 data points. Of note, the result for glove group is by thickness starting with thinnest at the top.
liners for one user had the highest index, 3.1, which was away from
the other three data points. The clockwise order of glove group is by
thickness starting with thinnest at the top. fasteners on the band, were noticeably stiffer where exposed

and grayed. Also, some components, such as the Velcro hooks
period. At final assessment, the color of red tip was noted to be on the windlass clips and Velcro loops on the windlass strap,

changed to white, whereas the underlying colored, degradable were brittle, and tiny fragments broke off easily during routine
components protected by an overlying component were mini- handling while gathering evidence.
mally affected. For instance, a windlass overlaid a portion of
the Omni-tape fasteners on which a sun shadow left a shadow- Degradation patterns of both wrapped and unwrapped paired
like shape remaining permanently black under that part of the tourniquets of both generations were similar. The wrapper
windlass, whereas the adjacent sun-exposed Omni-tape fas- itself was normal both in appearance and in texture on the
teners had grayed. When the windlass was moved away, the bottom and roof side, but its upper portion facing the sun
black shadow-like area remained black because no graying was ablated and missing. Between the upward and down-
had occurred there. Some components, such as the Omni-tape ward sides, the transition zone of the wrapper converged to

Unwrapping a Tourniquet | 31