During a recent lecture, a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) physician emphasized the importance of including tranexamic acid (TXA) in every wilderness medicine kit. In this updated article, we will delve into the what, why, who, and how of utilizing TXA in a remote environment. Key points:– TXA prevents the breakdown of blood clots– Prehospital […]

Medical Training of Crewmembers during the Ocean Race.

Massive haemorrhage is your first point of attention after assessing scene safety. A tourniquet can be used to control severe extremity haemorrhage. Since a conventional tourniquet is not always at hand, Salchner et al assessed the effectiveness of a space blanket‒improvised tourniquet with a carabiner as a rod. They concluded that in research setting (healthy […]

In the early morning of February 6th, residents of Turkey and Syria were struck by a powerful earthquake, followed by an aftershock 9 hours later. The epicenters were located close to the Turkish city of Gaziantep. The earthquakes, magnitudes of 7.8 and 7.5, were felt as far as parts of Lebanon, Cyprus, and Iraq, and […]

I remember well when Joost Hopman, a medical microbiologist at Radboud UMC, lectured on an Outdoor Medicine day about parasites. With tremendous fascination and admiration for nature, he presented “phenomenal parasites” that target us. These professional parasites inhabit our bodies. In this process, they seriously damage our organs, leave the body like a house party […]