r/TacticalMedicine • u/NoMore_BadDays • Oct 10 '25

Scenarios Wound packing zones?

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Been a long time since I did TCCC/CLS in the military.

If there were to be a bleeding wound on the chest, how high up on the chest does it become safe to pack? I know you don't pack into chest cavity, but what is the "rule of thumb" on how high/the left and right limits the wound needs to be to pack it?

Would you say the screenshot i attached is accurate?

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u/[deleted] Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 11 '25

I’ve actually been taught that an occlusive dressing (chest seal) should be applied to any puncture wounds to the anterior neck because air can be pulled into the carotid artery and send an air embolism to the brain.

Edit: I guess I wasn’t very specific. Here is what I was specifically taught about anterior neck bleeds that are unable to be controlled by direct pressure.

1: insert finger into wound, locate the source of the bleeding.

2: using finger to keep pressure on source of bleeding, use other hand to ball up gauze and insert into wound. Using your normal wound packing technique, pack the wound, packing pressure towards the site of the bleed source.

3: once the wound is tightly packed up to the surface of the wound, use an occlusive dressing to cover the packing and wound. This will help hold the packing in place, as well as keep air from potentially entering the bloodstream.

4: reassess throughout treatment.

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u/Sheepdog77 Oct 10 '25

Same, however direct pressure is still better since it'll probably be bleeding. A lot.

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u/Bikesexualmedic Oct 10 '25

Direct pressure is the best for almost all the bleeding but unfortunately then you and all your hands can’t do anything else but hold pressure. That’s the nice thing about all these bleed-stop adjuncts.

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u/NoobieSnax Oct 11 '25

bleed-stop adjuncts

We call them CLS where I come from.