Your comments on wound care in the field are correct. There is no emergency to "close" a wound in the field. Closing a wound that is not properly prepared invites the risk of serious, life threatening infection.<br><br>Maggots are tolerated in third world countries as they only consume dead tissue.<br><br>During the War of Northern Aggression (Civil War to you Yankees), there was no concern about infection and no knowledge of sterility, germs, etc. The prevailing thinking was that a would would not heal properly without infection (laudable pus). The re-used contaminated instruments, bandages, and sponges and wiped their hands on filthy aprons. That our ancestors survived at all is amazing.<br>

If a wound is "serious" enough to require closure, you should be evacuated. If the CA adhesive gets in your eye, you need medevac. Why mess with a wound and not just leave the field?<br><br>

Reinforces my position that there is no wound that requires repair in the field. Simply packing a wound open, changing the dressing and irrigating the wound daily, and not for the faint-of-heart doing simple debridement.

Mora Sweden 5 inch sheath Knife with Swedish Fire Steel attatched, any length of paracord I have on me, Lighter, Photon micro-light 3, Petzl Tikka head torch, Opinel Saw, .............................

hi to all<br>were i live (germany) there are no earthquakes,hurrikanes,tornados or other <br><br>but i carry always a knife(gerbertool) a flashlight(mightylight)<br>and other stuff <br>i have an old (very old) car that could break every moment<br>and i have some blankets,mre and tools in it so if i am driving<br>through a forrest at night in winter and my car dies i am a little<br>bit prepared<br><br>but the most important thing why i carry that stuf is <br>BECOUSE I FEEL BETHER AND MORE COMFORTABLE

Welcome Sid! No natural disaster threats in Deutschland? Didn't you have severe floods there recently? You were prepared better than most :O)

We all seem to be furiously agreeing on this point, hi-hi. (LOL for Internet speakers).<br><br>I guess maybe one point that might need clarification for some folk (me included, though I should have known better) is that there's a big difference between dressing a wound and closing it. I hope nobody here is opposed to putting a clean dressing on a wound and applying direct pressure if necessary to stop the bleeding; closing a wound is a different matter, and (according to Wayne Merry's book) should not be done unless at least 4 days have passed. (At least in the field; in a hospital setting I'd expect to have guys like you, who know far more about wound treatment than I ever will, to make the decisions.) I guess the point is that Crazy Glue can't be used to dress a wound, only to close it; and if you're ever in a situation where you need to close a wound and all you have to use is CG, then your preparation must have been Pretty Pathetic. (Either that, or you're a POW on the run.)

There is a surgical principle that is re-learned in each war. Contaminated wounds are not to be closed for three days or more. Wound treatment is initially oriented toward bleeding control, removal of foreign material and dead tissue, and irrigation. The wound cavity is then packed with sterile gauze, saline soaked gauze, gauze soaked in 1/2 strength Betadine, or 1/10th strength Clorox (Dakins Solution). The dressing is changed and the wound irrigated and further debrided as needed daily. When there is no evidence of either non viable tissue or infection, it can be closed with suture.<br><br>I will look at home for a poem that describes effective debridement.

hi Chris<br>well those floods were in the lower north and i live<br>in the higher south on a mountain <br>if a flood would come so far south and high.. the world would have a BIG problem<br>the only natural disaster threat we have here is the snow<br>and i am prepared for that :-)

Hi sid,<br>I live in Franken and around here you could think that snow in the winter is totally unusual. At least many people are not prepared properly or not prepared at all. Even 2 inches of snow regularly create some chaos. So being prepared can pay off even if there´s no disaster. I know some people who learnt the hard way why they should keep some basic equipment in their car (actually they still don´t keep equipment now).