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More On Counterfeit Tourniquets From CTOMS

CTOMS conducted three tests in which they self-applied two counterfeit Combat Application Tourniquet (E-CAT or Element CAT) and one real C-A-T to a healthy thigh. Continuous Doppler ultrasound was conducted to assess the distal pulse. Tourniquets were tightened until failure or it was too painful to continue to tighten.

While this video is two years old, it demonstrates how dangerous counterfeit tourniquets are. The bottom line is, buy your tourniquets from approved sources. The buck you save, may cost a life.

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12 Responses to “More On Counterfeit Tourniquets From CTOMS”

  1. Andy says:

    I couldn’t find this on the CTOMS site. Is there a link or file to download? This would be great to show Joes that might go about getting their own.

  2. Fluffy says:

    It’s not on the CTOMS website, it’s on their Vimeo channel.

    https://vimeo.com/67103253

  3. Joe says:

    Their blog has lots of good info too:
    http://privatebloggins.ca/

  4. Paralus says:

    Cheap Chinese Knockoffs…Now not just for toys or purses!

  5. E Baker says:

    I’m sure I’m going to piss someone off by saying this, but I feel like that test didn’t show too much. He wound the real one 2.5 times, but the fakes 4-5 full turns before they broke. I’d never trust a fake, but I’d much rather see a more scientific test that was more repeatable.

    • SSD says:

      Did you consider that the fakes HaD to be turned more times in order to get them to work?

      • E Baker says:

        I considered it, but to me (and I could be wrong here) it sounded like the ultrasound lost the distal pulse around the same number of turns for each. I’m not questioning the quality of knock of crap, but I’d really love to see a scientific test that measures the breaking force for each one and gives quantitative data.

  6. Darkhorse says:

    There are other tourniquets on the market that have the same issue of not functioning as they are advertised to do. Bottom line, unless it’s a proven and medically authorized/FDA approved device, you’re risking your life using it, or worse… risking someone else’s life when you use it on them..

    • Jim D says:

      Yes and no, people have saved lives with improvised tourniquets for centuries. The tourniquet existed and were useful before the SOFTT-W and CAT came to market.

      Plenty of lives have been saved in the woods with a bandanna and a stick.

      I’m not saying to go buy fakes, but your statement strikes me as being a bit dramatic.

  7. Paul S says:

    Can I use chinese cravats and chinese sticks? Or are foreign cloth and wood somehow inferior to Murickan cloth and sticks?

    As mentioned earlier, tourniquets have been effectively used for at least a century and a half pre-CAT. Doesnt anyone remember the slide about Gen Albert Sydney Johnson and Dr. Yandell’s tourniquets from SHiloh?

    This was either a terrible attempt at selling ones products, or discreditting anothers, or an amatuerish attempt at a scientific comparisson.

    Notice that all tourniquets occluded bloodflow via the doppler after 2.5 turns. Why then, was the windlass continued to be turned multiple times after arterial occlussion with the first two and not with the third? In order for any comparrison to be worth the ink that it is written on, ALL parameters MUST be the SAME. Seems that there was more scinetific method followed in the Amiodarone vs Lidocaine studies then in this “comparisson”.

    And what type of technique is it to intentionally bend the windlass in half during application? A re-train or a little intellectual honesty needed?

  8. William says:

    I don’t know about anyone here but I’ve bent fresh, *REAL*, from Army medics, CAT windless’s. I’m going to SOF-T-Wide from now on. I’ve got the original SOF-T and no failures, even after numerous applications.