Medical

Pressure Dressing

An elastic or compression bandage applied over a wound with direct pressure to control bleeding without fully occluding arterial flow.

In the Field

The pressure dressing is the finishing move, not the opener. It comes after the tourniquet, after the hemostatic, after you have done the work to stop the heavy bleeding. Its job is to maintain pressure while you move the patient, free up your hands, or transition to the next casualty. The Israeli bandage earned its reputation because it works one-handed under stress. Newer designs like OLAES add adjuncts for packing and pressure in a single package. All of them fail the same way: wrapped too loose to hold, or wrapped too tight and mistaken for a tourniquet.

Common Mistake

Over-tightening a pressure dressing to the point it functions as an unintended tourniquet.

Technical Detail

Pressure dressings are elastic or compression bandages used to maintain wound pressure after initial hemorrhage control with a tourniquet, hemostatic agent, or direct pressure. Common field products include the Emergency Trauma Dressing (ETD, commonly called the Israeli bandage), the OLAES modular bandage, and the H-Bandage. Each is designed for one-handed self-application if necessary.

Correct application requires circumferential wrapping with sufficient tension to maintain pressure on the wound site, but not so tight as to function as an unintended tourniquet. Pressure dressings are not a substitute for a tourniquet in cases of massive hemorrhage from an extremity.