I read a book called The Dressing Station by Dr. Kaplan that talks about a improvised one way valve that is used to treat a tension pneumothorax after needle decompression if no chest tube and pleurovac were available. He said that he learned it from some SF medics that he was working with in northern Iraq during the first Iraq conflict. He briefly describes it as cutting the finger off a latex glove and then making a small hole at the tip of the finger. He doesn’t go into more detail but I assume you attach the base of the finger to the needle and the small hole in the tip allows air from the pneumothorax to escape during expiration and collapses on itself during inspiration. I was wondering if anyone that had experience with this method would comment on the technique and how well it works.
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