First aid kit

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A first aid box is a collection of supplies and equipment for use in giving first aid, particularly in a medical emergency. Most first aid kits contain bandages for controlling bleeding, personal protective equipment such as gloves and a breathing barrier for performing rescue breathing and CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), and sometimes instructions on how to perform first aid.

Contents

Most store bought flirt aid kits, especially the cheap ones, are very poor in terms of quality, quantity, and selection of items, and are only suited for treating very minor injuries. A homemade kit, if properly prepared, is generally better and sometimes cheaper than most commercial kits.

A generic first aid kit is better than nothing. However, the contents of a first aid kit should be optimized for local conditions. For example, a kit for hikers in snake country should have a snakebite kit. A kit aboard a boat should have medications for seasickness.

One list of items for a first aid kit are as follows:

• Dressings (sterile, applied directly to wound)
  • Pads
    • Sterile eye pads
    • Sterile gauze pads
    • Sterile nonadherent pads
    • Burn dressing (sterile pad soaked in a cooling gel)

• Bandages (sterility is not necessary, used to secure a dressing)
  • Gauze Roller bandages - absorbent, breathable, and often elastic
  • Elastic bandages - used for sprains, and pressure bandages
  • Adhesive, elastic roller bandages - Very effective pressure bandages or durable, waterproof bandaging
  • Triangular bandages - used as slings, tourniquets, to tie splints, and many other uses

Sometimes dressings and bandages are combined, in which case they must be sterile.

• Adhesive bandages (band-aids, sticking plasters)
  • Straight adhesive bandages
  • Butterfly (knuckle) bandages

Instruments

• Adhesive tape, hypoallergenic
• Trauma shears, for cutting clothing and general use
• Tweezers
• Irrigation syringe, for cleaning wounds
• Rubber suction bulb, for clearing the airway of an unconscious patient
• If treating snakebites is a concern. This is the only snakebite kit generally recognised as not causing further damage and possibly reducing the effects of a snakebite.^{[citation needed]}

Equipment

• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
  • Gloves, disposable non-latex
  • CPR mask or other breathing barrier such as a face shield
• Eye cup or small plastic cup
• Torch (also known as a flashlight)
• Instant-acting chemical cold packs
• Sterile eye wash (commonly saline)
  • Sterile saline may also be used for cleaning wounds where clean tap water is not available.
• Swabs, sterile non-woven
• Space blanket (lightweight plastic foil blanket, sometimes called "emergency blanket")
• Alcohol rub (hand sanitizer) or antiseptic hand wipes
• Thermometer
• Penlight

Medication (Single use packets of medications, ointments, and antiseptics will prolong shelf life, decrease contamination risk, reduce risk of leakage (usually), and save space (for small quantities).

• Antiseptics/antimicrobial
  • Povidone iodine wipes - very effective and painless, but messy. Can also be used to purify water
  • Benzalkonium Chloride - painless, effective, often includes anesthetic.
  • Alcohol pads - should not be used on open cuts or wounds, since they cause tissue damage and delay healing. They can be used to prep unbroken skin for injections etc. or to disinfect equipment such as thermometers. While not a medical use, alcohol pads are also useful as a solvent to remove ink, adhesives, etc.
  • Antibiotic ointment - single, double, or triple antibiotic ointment in petroleum jelly base *Antiseptic/anesthetic ointment or spray

• Anti-itch ointment (especially for outdoor kits)
  • Hydrocortisone cream
  • Antihistamine cream, such as benadryl
  • Calamine lotion
• Painkillers / fever reducers
  • Acetaminophen
  • Ibuprofen - anti-inflammatory, often more effective that acetaminophen.

• • Aspirin - one 300mg Aspirin tablet may be given to a patient suffering a heart attack, to be chewed slowly.
• Antihistamines - can treat allergies and allergic reactions, including life-threatening anaphylactic shock.
  • diphenhydramine (brand name Benadryl)
• Aloe vera gel - used for a wide variety of skin problems, including burns, sunburns, itching, and dry skin
• Burn gel - a water based gel that acts as a cooling agent and often includes a mild anesthetic such as lidocaine and, sometimes, an antiseptic such as tea tree oil
• Epinephrine auto-injector (brand name Epipen) - Often included in kits for wilderness use and in places like summer camps, to treat anaphylactic shock.
• Poison treatments
  • Activated charcoal
  • Syrup of ipecac
• QuikClot is a hemostatic agent sometimes included in first aid kits, especially military kits, to control severe bleeding.

Improvised uses: Many first aid items can have improvised uses in a survival situation. For example, alcohol pads and petroleum jelly based ointments can be used as a fire-starting aid in an emergency, and the latter can even be used as an improvised lubricant for certain mechanical devices, and adhesive tapes and bandages can be used for repairs. These alternate uses can be an important consideration when picking items for a kit that may be used in wilderness or survival situations.

Improvisation

First aid can be performed without a first aid kit. Any cloth (preferably as clean as possible) can be used as a bandage. Duct tape could also be used to secure a dressing. Common household items such as a magazine or even sticks can be used for splints. Direct pressure to stop bleeding can be applied with a hand if nothing else presents itself. Obviously it is better to have proper equipment, but improvised equipment has saved many lives.

Trauma Bag/First Responder Bag

Emergency responders use a more advanced medical kit called a trauma bag or a first responder bag. The contents are more high quality and the quantity of supplies is more than a basic first aid kit.

See also

• First aid
• Bug-out bag

External links

• Yahoo's First Aid Directory
• DMOZ.org First Aid Guide
• The Do's & Don'ts of First Aid Compliancecs:Autolékárnička

de:Verbandkasten fr:Trousse de secours it:Cassetta di pronto soccorso nl:EHBO-koffer ja:救急箱

Acknowledgement and Attribution Regarding Sources of Content

Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .