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that is a re-newed version of the old puncture cric kit. Doc-T hit it...the bleeding issue makes someone question the procedure....OMG! Am I in the wrong place, did I cut something REALLY bad.....just keep going and finish the airway. The pressure from the tube or tape or securing device will ususally tamponade the bleeding. It's very low pressure bleeding1-3 mmHg and will stop by raising their head. As faras abandoning the procedure, thattypically wouldn't happen in the field for SF (or similiar) care but happens with EMS and even Emergency Medicine docs. I have been called STAT 4-6 times a year for a "failed" cric which turned out to be due to significant bleeding with the procedure.
I have spoken to many a combat medic that when the face is burned, frag'ed, the tongue is lacerated, etc, the cric is the 1st step, not the last for an airway. I'm going to attach 2 pictures, 1 is an explosion in the mouth (M-80) but could be something seen in the field and the second is a massive blunt trauma to the face...how would you approach the airway??
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'Revel in action, translate perceptions into instant judgements, and these into actions that are irrevocable, monumentous and dreadful - all this with lightning speed, in conditions of great stress and in an environment of high tension:what is expected of "us" is the impossible, yet we deliver just that.
(adapted from: Sherwin B. Nuland, MD, surgeon and author: The Wisdom of the Body, 1997 )
Education is the anti-ignorance we all need to better treat our patients. ss, 2008.
The blade is so sharp that the incision is perfect. They don't realize they've been cut until they're out of the fight: A Surgeon Warrior. I use a knife to defend life and to save it. ss (aka traumadoc)
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