Oh, patents! Israeli (ER) bandage

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Designed, and patented, by an Israeli army medic, the Emergency Bandage—also known as the  Israeli Bandage—is now standard equipment in the United States and International Armed Forces. The Israeli ER Bandage is even also widely used in hospitals, emergency medical services, and first aid kits for factories, offices, homes, and camping.

The Israeli ER Bandage is designed in different sizes to provide pressure on hemorrhaging trauma wounds, occurring on almost any part of the body (limbs, head, neck, chest, and abdomen). The ER bandage comprises four essential, all-in-one, parts: 

• A sterile dressing pad (primary dressing)
• An attached elasticized cloth wrap (secondary dressing)
• An attached patented pressure applicator to apply pressure at the wound site.
• An attached patented closure bar (that can also be used as a tourniquet for extra pressure on the wound).

Because of the versatility of the all-in-one design, packaged in a vacuum sterile pack, the Israeli ER bandage is both cost- and time-efficient. Cost-efficient because separate supplies of 4x4  sterile pads, gauze, fasteners, straps, and sticks are no longer required to treat a hemorrhaging trauma wound, and time-efficient for the same reasons, in situations where every minute counts. Indeed, the all-in-one design also allows the bandage to be self-applied. Elastic snaps are even included to prevent the elasticized cloth wrap from unraveling to the ground before it is wrapped around the wound. Likewise, the sterile vacuum packaging is notched so that it is easy to tear and remove the bandage from the packaging.

The video below demonstrates how the Israeli bandage is applied. Essentially, the sterile pad is placed on the wound with the pressure applicator offset from the wound. The cloth wrap is wrapped once around the wound and inserted into the pressure applicator. Then, the cloth wrap is pulled back and wrapped in the opposite direction around the wound, securing the pressure applicator in place on the sterile dressing. At the end of the cloth wrap, a fastener with hooks on each end secures the bandage wrapped around the wound. Alternatively, the end fastener can be twisted and used as a tourniquet to add additional pressure on the wound.  

The Israel ER Bandage, and all of its key components, is a patented invention. The US utility patent US5628723A, titled Emergency Bandage,  was awarded to Bernard Grau (aka Bernard Bar-Natan), on May 13, 1997. The patent Figure 3 is included below, together with an image of the marketed ER bandage. 

The patent Figure 3 is a partial simplified illustration of the bandage 100. The Figure 3 depicts the dressing 102, preferably including one or more absorbent portions made of cotton sandwiched between a non-adherent pad 112 (face down, non visible) and a structural cloth layer 114 (shown, but unindexed). The ER bandage also comprises a pressure enhancement member (applicator) 106, preferably made of flexible, resilient plastic. The pressure enhancement member 106 comprises a bow-shaped portion 120, attached perpendicular to a base 122. The bow-shaped portion 120 has two arcuate wings 124, curving away from the dressing 102. 

The wings 124 are joined to the bow-shaped portion 120 via two rounded junctions 128. Each rounded junction further comprises a stiffening rib 128. Roughening ribs 132 are found on the inside of the wings 124, and one more stiffening rib 127 is found on the bow-shaped portion  120. The stiffening ribs 127 and 128 are together designed to prevent the gap 134 between the bow-shaped portion 120 and the wings 124 from widening, and inadvertently allowing the cloth wrap 104 to be pulled out of the space 134, when the cloth wrap 104 is pulled back against the wings 124, to secure the pressure enhancement member 126 on top on the dressing 102.  Likewise, the roughening ribs 132, on the inside of the wings 124, are designed to increase friction between the cloth wrap 104 and the wings to prevent the cloth wrap 104 from being pulled out of the space 134.  

Between the two wings 124, there is a gap 130 through which the cloth wrap is pushed, onto the space 134, before changing wrapping directions around the wound. The tips 129 of the wings 124 are chamfered to enable the cloth wrap 104 to slip more easily through the gap 130 between the wings 124, into the space 134, before changing wrapping directions. 

The cloth wrap 104 extends on each side of the dressing 102. The short 117 end of the cloth wrap 104 is designed to facilitate grasping the bandage. The other end of the cloth wrap 104  has an attached closure bar 140 with two hooks 144 on each side. Each hook 144 has a covered tip 146. The closure bar 140 with its two hooks 144 is designed to secure the bandage to the wounded body part. Alternatively, the closure bar 140 might be twisted like a tourniquet for added pressure, before the bandage is secured with its hooks 144 to the rest of the wrapped bandage. 

The patent recites other embodiments of the pressure enhancement applicator.  Below, the abstract of the invention is also included.

For use in a bandage comprising a sterile dressing and a web portion attached to and extending from the sterile dressing, a pressure enhancement member comprising a base, and at least one wrapping element generally perpendicular to the base, the at least one wrapping element having a gap, wherein the pressure enhancement member is attached to a non-wound-side surface of the sterile dressing, and the at least one wrapping element is arranged for wrapping therearound by the web portion, wherein when the web portion is wrapped in a first direction around a limb having thereon a wound, and forced through the gap, and the web portion is then wrapped around the at least one wrapping element in a second direction, the pressure enhancement member applies a pressure on the dressing, thereby causing the dressing to apply a local pressure to the wound, and subsequent wrappings of the web portion on the pressure enhancement member, on previous wrappings of the web portion and on the limb, increase the local pressure on the wound. [Abstract US5628723A]

Reference
Amazon - Israeli Ever Ready First Aid Israeli Battle Dressing Compression Bandage, 6"
https://www.amazon.com/Israeli-Dressing-First-Aid-Compression/dp/B003DPVERM