A Woman Who Needed to Be Upside-Down (2012)

Re:A Woman Who Needed to Be Upside-Down (2012) by alexpotato on Thursday July 09, 2020 @11:52AM (#23781558)

This is why they have, no joke, inflatable pants [0] more commonly known as "Military Anti Shock Trousers(MAST)".

I am not a dr (IANAD?) but the idea is that you inflate the pants around a patient's legs which helps both push and keep blood out of the lower limbs and closer to the hear and brain. In principle, you could do the same by tying a tourniquet around each leg but the MASTs probably cause less tissue damage and are more adjustable.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_anti-shock_trousers

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Re:A Woman Who Needed to Be Upside-Down (2012) by prputnam on Thursday July 09, 2020 @12:38PM (#23782010)

I've been out of EMS for a few years now, but these have (or had at least) fallen massively out of favor.

Effectively, you could artificially keep the patient alive by using MAST pants, but they inevitably crash when they were removed. My old service had a few pairs tucked back in a closest, but none on any of the rigs. I'm quite certain they aren't in allowable by protocol in most places at this point.

A pretty wild device, nonetheless!

EDIT: Quick edit to throw in that I have heard tales from the old heads of using them to stabilize pelvic fractures, too.

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Re:A Woman Who Needed to Be Upside-Down (2012) by sterlind on Thursday July 09, 2020 @01:31PM (#23782682)

Even if they crash, couldn't MAST pants be useful in ambulances in order to deliver patients alive to the OR? Or did it somehow make them less likely to survive than not using them at all?

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