Tourniquet width impact?
A common criticism i've heard of the CAT tourniquet is that there's only 1" wide portion applying tension, and that "the wider the tourniquet is, the less pressure needs to be applied to stop the bleeding"...also meaning less pain caused by the tourniquet.
Based on this logic, it would seem that wider tourniquets, like the SOFTT-Wide, should be preferred. However, I am not sure why, by that same logic, nobody suggests that an Israeli bandage would allow blood flow to be cut off with even less pressure and discomfort. Perhaps because it's not actually true that "the wider the tourniquet, the less pressure needs to be applied"?
I found this interesting study that compares the CAT7 to the SOFTT- Wide: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32091602/
According to this study, the SOFTT-W applies lower pressure than CAT7 and as a result, was much less effective at stopping hemorrhaging.
But this result perplexes me because the amount of pressure is user adjustable. Couldn't they have just turned the windlass another time? So i'm not sure if this is real science or if it's a biased study.
Posted Mar 12, 2025, 8:05 PM UTC