Safety and efficacy in the use of improvised tourniquets versus commercial devices in the control of massive haemorrhage: a literature review

The constant increase in traumatic events and consequent penetrating wounds in civil contexts suggests that attention should be paid to the use of safe and functional devices for the treatment of massive limb haemorrhages. In Italy, the tourniquet still remains an underused instrument because it is considered dangerous and erroneously associated exclusively with a military context. On the contrary, recent national trauma guidelines encourage its widespread use in the civilian context when direct manual compression and haemostatic dressing is ineffective or impractical. There are two types of devices: improvised (I-TQs) and packaged (C-TQs). The aim of this work is to compare the efficacy and safety of I-TQs and C-TQs.