Prolonged Extremity Tourniquet Use in Wilderness and Austere Trauma: A Rapid Review and Exploratory Meta-Analysis

Background

Extremity tourniquets are established lifesaving interventions for severe traumatic hemorrhage, but much of the supporting evidence comes from systems in which evacuation and surgical care occur rapidly. Wilderness, rural, disaster, and contemporary battlefield environments may expose patients to substantially longer tourniquet times. This review examined duration-related outcomes of prolonged emergency tourniquet use and the implications for delayed evacuation.