Israeli Battle Dressing

Contents 1 Expert Discussion 2 Product Description (from Manufacturer) 3 Steps to using the Israeli Trauma Bandage 4 Operator's Checklist Items/Notes 5 Keywords 6 Page Curator

Back to Bug Out Bag

The Emergency Bandage/Israeli Dressing/Izzy D is a good piece of kit, well regarded and common, and a good addition to any complete trauma kit.

Get a few, bust one open and start playing with it. Practice with medical gear is essential for performance under stress.

Purchase on Amazon (inexpensive)

Expert Discussion

I've never had to use the "Israeli" bandage, although I'd have rather had one than having improvised pressure dressings on occasions which is why I have them now.

I've spoken with numerous professionals (civilian, LEO and military EMTs/Medics) who've used them for real, and read even more accounts of their use, and they work well (realizing anything can fail, and every case is different); Better than the old issue battle dressings that tied on, and as well as or better than their contemporaries. They are an accepted, if not standard, pressure dressing in the tactical medical arena at this point.

In the civilian/individual Tactical Combat Casualty Care Guidelines based course material I teach, the Israeli/Emergency Bandage is the standard pressure dressing we use and send students home with, although we cover the field. They're very durable, easy to apply and their use is easily grasped by laymen. Students have been able to apply them successfully (or as close to as can be gauged in a classroom environment) pretty much immediately, across the board. (This is true, I will note, of the other common designs as well; I will say however that the rate of failures of the tension mechanism on the Israeli dressings, in my experience, is less than that with other designs. Some of the other designs do occasionally fail immediately when tension is applied, although not significantly enough that I would hesitate to carry them if I needed to; Some of the competing designs do offer a slimmer, more easily carried, profile than the Israeli dressing).

Based on community experience, and training results, I carry Israeli dressings in most of my kits, including my wilderness and exploration aid bags.

I feel the need to note that there is a lot of mention out there about using them as a tourniquet; They are not a tourniquet. It is a pressure dressing, and works well as such (and generates a lot of pressure, as it should), but they do not effectively occlude major vessels and aren't designed to. You can improvise a tourniquet from any sufficiently long and broad (1” or greater width) piece of fabric and a windlass, but within the design and function of the “Emergency Bandage”, it is not a tourniquet.

Along with a pressure dressing, even a basic trauma or "blowout" kit should have a tourniquet, as a First recourse for stopping/slowing major bleeding in the limbs. The progression in a "tactical" environ being something like: Tourniquet immediately (or pressure, if non-tourniquetable), finish the fight or escape the environment, then wound packing and application of hemostatic agent as necessary, and then a pressure dressing atop that to allow care-giver (or the injured) to free up their hands and not need to hold pressure atop the wound, and to keep the packing/hemostatic in place. -- Morgan Atwood

Product Description (from Manufacturer)

Combat medics, trauma doctors, and emergency responders all recommend this Israeli Battle Dressing (IBD) or Israeli Emergency Bandage for the treatment of:

• gunshot wounds,
• puncture wounds,
• deep cuts,
• and other traumatic hemorrhagic injuries.

In fact, this is the same bandage that is included in the U.S. Military's IFAK, or individual first aid kit. This is the large, six-inch bandage, and can be used one-handed for self-treatment or can be applied by a care giver or first responder to help staunch blood flow and stabilize the patient for evacuation or treatment. It can be used on the head, leg, arm, torso, or elsewhere on the body.

Although primarily designed to help staunch blood flow by applying pressure to the wound site, the 70-inch long elastic portion of the bandage can also be used in the field to construct a sling, to bind a strain or sprain, to secure splints to the broken limb, or even as an improvised tourniquet. The IBD is self contained. It does not require clips, Velcro or pins to use and there are no loose parts that can get lost or misplaced in an emergency.

This bandage is vacuum packaged in a compact, sterilized package with instructions for use on the back. The package is small enough to carry in your BDU pocket or a MOLLE pouch. A highly recommended piece of safety gear for those going into harms way.

Steps to using the Israeli Trauma Bandage

1. Remove the bandage from the pouch
2. Place the pad (dressing) on the wound
3. Wrap the elastic bandage around the wounded extremity
4. Insert the elastic bandage completely into the pressure bar
5. Pull the elastic bandage back over the top of the pressure bar, forcing the bar down onto the pad
6. Wrap the elastic bandage tightly over the pressure bar
7. Continue to wrap the elastic bandage around the limb so that all edges of the pad are covered
8. Secure the hooking end of the closing bar into the elastic bandage to secure the bandage

Operator's Checklist Items/Notes

Here are some additional checklist items you can add to your own checklist. These are from an operator's perspective (Courtesy Mark Quon):

• When wrapping, cover the entire bandaged area and pull the wrap edges tight to prevent leakage.
• For non-bleeding, shallow wounds, pack the wound with gauze, then wrap it with the IBD.
• For bleeders, add more layers ( for gunshots, pack as much gauze as will fit) then wrap it in IBD.
• For gunshot related entry and exit wounds, pack both sides then wrap in IBD. -
• For life threatening bleeders, the IBD is used after the wound has been packed and tourniquet has been fastened on.
• Like the tourniquet, it would be "counterproductive" to tightly wrap the IBD around the neck when stemming bleeders there so while the bandage section is used to apply direct pressure on a neck wound, the ends are wrapped around the opposite armpit.
• When used as an improvised tourniquet (a use that is not recommended):
  • For maximum effect, apply it to part of limb with single bone (i.e. humerous on arms, femur on legs) since the multiple bones in the lower parts of the limb (the arms' ulna/radius and legs' tibia/fibula) might shield the severed artery from being effectively pinched off. Plus, the great range of motion/articulation of the lower bones make it more difficult to immobilize a severed artery for the purpose of compressing it.
  • On extremity wounds located on single boned region of limb, apply it 2-3" high before bandaging wound itself.
• Windlass/windup portion goes over point of hemorrhage.
• Can also be used on other forms of uncontrolled bleeding i.e.non arterial, venous, or internal bleeding within limbs which is indicated by large pools of blood forming under skin.

Keywords

Izzy D, Israeli Dressing, The Emergency Bandage, Israeli Bandage, Trauma Bandage

Page Curator

John Robb