Best knife to perform an Emergency Tracheotomy

[misque]

What would happen if you were put in the position of having to perform this procedure on someone?
Which knife would you wanna have on you to do it?



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The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others.
Sun Tzu

 

[Soloman]

A #11 surgical scalpel.

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"I'm out there Jerry, and I'm lovin' every minute of it!"--Kramer

 

[MNH]

A # 11 Scalpel blade is about right, Failing that, you want something that is real pointy, maybe a MicroTech M-UDT? Maybe a Spyderco Ladybug.

I always thought it would be interesting trying to explain to someone, "no, I'm not slitting this guys throat!" "Well yea, I am sorta slitting his throat, but not really!"


Mike

 

[Jackal]

Fully serrated Spyderco Harpy (That's the hawk bill blade right?) The point, and serrations would be perfect.

-AR

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"The strange thing about this Internet deal is that fact and BS are all taken as fact. Guess I will head on down to the local barber shop as they will be solving the nation's political problems today." - Michael Walker

 

[rdangerer]

A neck knife, for sure.

Nicest, most thoughtful and tasteful design I know of is the Mike Franklin Hawg neck knife.

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rdangerer@home.com

 

[glockman99]

.

.

(BTW, I AM an Emergency Medical Technician...).

.


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Dann Fassnacht
Aberdeen, WA
glockman99@hotmail.com
ICQ# 53675663

 

[Esav Benyamin]

CRKT Neck Peck.

 

[James Mattis]

Sharp point.

Sharp edge.

Clean.

I remember reading some years ago about it being done by a doctor with a Swiss Army Knife on an airline in flight.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001

 

[James Healy]

As far as i can remember, there is a specific tool that does this, like a really sharp apple coring tool.

I think a kukri would be effective

James

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The beast we are, lest the beast we become.

 

[Frank]

I'd use some of these tools: http://www.gtamart.com/mart/products/surginst/sok.htm http://www.gtamart.com/mart/products/surginst/ti.htm

 

[Full Tang Clan]

Father Mulchahy used a "Tom Mix" pocket knife in an episode of MASH. Heck, if it was good enough for him...

Just remember to conviently have a bottle of eyedrops so that you can use the tube from the dropper to stick in the breathing hole. Oh yeah, you'll also need Hawkeye, B.J., and Colonel Potter assisting you over the Walkie.

Hawkeye (as played by the lovable Alan Alda) said: Look for a notch at the base of the neck at the top of the chest. Make a vertical incision about an inch long. Keep cutting until you see some rings of tissue. The tissue is fibrous so you'll have to cut in between the rings of tissue...

 

[narruc1]

Hey Glockman, If I ever need help... Please don't stop

Believe it, or not... The best thing to use is a good old fashion can opener!

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BC... For those who fought for it, Freedom has a flavor the protected will never know... Semper Fi

 

[Flotsam]

I wouldn't suggest anyone doing an emergency tracheotomy. A crichothyroidotomy is safer, and generally quicker. A #11 blade would be fine for a crich, a #10 or #15 for a trach. With a trach, w/ either a vertical or transverse incision, you have a pretty good chance of hitting the inferior thyroid vein(s). Not as much going on near the cricoid membrane as there is near the 2nd or 3rd tracheal rings (proper place for a trach) also, you don't want to mess up tissues - do a crich, establish an airway, and then do a more formal tracheotomy in the OR.

As for you guys who like the hawkbill - try a #12 blade

 

[Costas]

And how exactly do you do a cricho??

By the way, sometime ago I asked a friend of mine who is a doctor( an orthopaedic surgeon) the same question and he said that he always carries a small, sealed packet of scalpel blades in his wallet, along with a couple of scalpel hanldes in his car and a small first aid kit, so that he can offer immediate medical assistance to any roadside incident that he might come upon.
In his opinion, every doctor should be always "armed", exactly like an off-duty policeman.
As for us untrained persons, he says that we should NOT try to do a tracheotomy to anybody, unless of course we are stuck in the middle of nowhere and there is absolutely no hope of proper medical help.

 

[AlaChoctaw]

A really sharp CRKT Urban Shark would be hard to beat.That sharp point would be a Godsend.

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AKTI Member #A000934
"Always just one knife short of perfection!"

 

[Bronco]

Is Doc Walt on vacation or just taking the high road on this one?

.

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Semper Fi

-Bill

 

[richard rosvall]

Mad Chang Knives AJAK!

 

[storyville]

Broken Pepsi bottle.

 

[rep]

I also remember something about a doctor using a Victorinox SAK to do a trach, on an airplane, no less.

 

[James Y]

I remember awhile back someone said they asked Victorinox what the "emergency blade" on some of their smaller knives was for. (it looks somewhat like a very tiny wharncliffe blade). He was told it was for emergency trachiotomy or some-such, but its intended purpose was not openly talked about for possibly legal (?) reasons.
Jim