The Defense Health Agency Medical Logistics (DHA MEDLOG) received a Product Quality Deficiency Report (PQDR), which is being adjudicated, from the operational field and has issued an Informational SAFETY ALERT on the Individual First Aid Kits (IFAKS) that contains Vacuum Sealed CAT GEN 7 Tourniquets.  This Medical Message Quality Control (MMQC-19-2180) was released on July 17th 2019.

Reason: The vacuum seal of the tourniquets causes a deformity of the tourniquet clips which causes a malfunction to occur. The sealing of the tourniquet inhibits the optimization and efficiency by creating a barrier in life threatening situations as evident by creating extra time to remove the tourniquet promptly. Additionally, due to the durability of the seal, breaking the seal with sharp objects (i.e.: knife and/or shears) increases the risk of damaging the tourniquet and self.

NOTE: This message is to alert the enterprise of the potential safety risk that may involve vacuum sealing tourniquets in IFAKS.

DHA MEDLOG Recommendations:

1) Stop and/or pause vacuum sealing IFAKS pending manufacturer recommendation or guidance.

2) If vacuum sealing is necessary for kitting, please ensure the kitting company follows the manufacturer???s recommendations for components contained in IFAKS, to include tourniquets, to ensure best practices are correctly identified.