Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Have Dremel, Will Operate

The book Surgery and Healing in the Developing World offers great insight into how surgeons operate under extreme conditions. Published by Landes Biosciences, they offer it as a free ebook.

Here's a description for an OR tourniquet:
A standard football or bicycle pump can be used for inflation. With a little imagination a manometer can be palced in the system using a 3-way stopcock will all 3 ways opened.

After the correct pressure is obtained while pumping, the tube going to the tourniquet proper is clamped securely. The pressure that you set will be maintained quite well as long as the tourniquet has no leaks and the clamp is tight enough. A rechargeable cordless drill can be gas sterilized after proper charging and used on low speed (to prevent burning of the bone) for orthopedic cases requiring a lot of drilling such as external fixator placement. An assortmnet of drill bits from the hardware store is helpful.
Link

1 comment:

bbellows said...

Kinda one step up from Where There is No Doctor"? There's a doctor if little else. Looks like a great resource.