NATO AMEDP-1.15 PDF

INTRODUCTION

Medical care in the field often requires the use of probes, catheters, drainage pipes and tracheal tubes. While one of the ends of these tubes is usually introduced into the body of the casualties, the other must be connected to external elements of the medical equipment (transfusion, infusion and injection systems, mechanical respirators, recipients and bags for collection of corporal debris and excreta...). The assembly between internal (introduced into the patient) and external (out of the patient) elements is achieved by means of different kinds of connectors.

The characteristics of these connectors are of great importance in the treatment of patients/casualties due to:

- The use of similar medical products with incompatible connectors can cause problems when medical units from different countries take part in the evacuation of casualties. These problems can cause the need to change the medical apparatus that have already been inserted into the patient, to even make it impossible to use these apparatus or medical equipment and the correct treatment of the patients in the worst case.

- The use of medical apparatus for different medical procedures using the same connectors can cause errors in their use or connection that can endanger the life of the patients.

- The use of different connectors in medical apparatus by different countries participating in the deployment, can lead to errors in the use of the apparatus inserted into patients that can endanger the life of the casualty.

Therefore, medical teams which participate in a multinational evacuation chain under NATO authority should have available compatible connections for medical tubes and catheters.