Integrated tourniquet clothing system aims to save lives on the battlefield

One of the most common causes of preventable deaths in tactical environment is bleeding to death, so any advance in providing assistance as quickly as possible in such situations clearly has the potential to save lives. This is the thinking behind a new range of clothing from Blackhawk that integrates tourniquets into the design which can be immediately accessed by the wearer, their buddy, or a medic to minimize the loss of blood.

The Integrated Tourniquet System (I.T.S) has been introduced into the new "Warrior Wear" apparel line and consists of four tourniquets in the pants and four tourniquets in the shirt (two in the short sleeve version) which are correctly positioned and oriented to the upper and lower extremities. The clothing can be worn under existing gear and users can train with the system without having to replace each tourniquet after a single use, which enables users to use the same system they will wear in tactical operations.

The System was the brainchild of Dr. Keith Rose. Dr. Rose, a tactical medicine consultant for Blackhawk’s Special Operations Division with several years military experience on a forward surgical team and extensive field experience in trauma and burns.

“The majority of preventable deaths come from loss of blood resulting from leg and arm wounds that is not protected by body armor. Ten percent of preventable combat deaths are from extremity bleeding and 50-70% of all combat injuries are extremity wounds,” explained Dr. Rose.

Blackhawk intends to incorporate I.T.S. into its current line of apparel and will also license the technology to other manufactures that currently provide apparel to the Military, Law Enforcement, and Outdoor community.

The I.T.S. system is in the final phases of testing and should be available during the first quarter of 2008.