Hair Tourniquet

Aka: Hair Tourniquet, Tourniquet syndrome

II. Definition

  1. Hair, thread or fiber wrapped tightly around appendage (i.e. finger, toe, penis)

III. Pathophysiology

  1. Pain results from cutting into skin or constricting flow

IV. Epidemiology

  1. Typically limited to infants

V. Symptoms

  1. Unconsolable Infant

VI. Signs

  1. Proximal ligature (hair, thread, fiber)
  2. Erythematous, swollen distal digit or penis

VII. Management

  1. Cutting ligature
    1. Attempt to lift ligature off skin with forceps without teeth (or Mosquito clamp)
    2. Cut ligature with iris scissors
  2. Depilatory agent (e.g. Nair)
    1. Apply to Hair Tourniquet
    2. Works slowly and only with hair (not effective for synthetic fibers or threads)

VIII. References

  1. O'Gorman (2011) Pediatr Emerg Care 27(3):203-4 [PubMed]

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Related Studies

Ontology: Hair-thread tourniquet syndrome (C1535897)

Concepts Injury or Poisoning (T037)
Dutch hair-thread tourniquet syndrome
French Syndrome de tortillement d'une mèche de cheveux
Italian Sindrome da laccio emostatico alle dita del piede
Portuguese Síndrome de torniquete de fio capilar
Spanish Síndrome de torniquete por hebra de pelo
Japanese 毛髪・糸止血帯症候群, ﾓｳﾊﾂｲﾄｼｹﾂﾀｲｼｮｳｺｳｸﾞﾝ
Czech Syndrom vlasového turniketu
Hungarian Hajszál okozta tourniquet-szindróma
English Hair-thread tourniquet syndrome
German Hair-thread-Tourniquet-Syndrom
Derived from the NIH UMLS (Unified Medical Language System)

Related Topics in Dermatology

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