Hey guys, in this video I break down another EMS acronym you might have heard once or twice in EMT class and that's DCAP-BTLS. DCAP-BTLS is a trauma specific acronym to help you remember what you're looking for during your trauma exams. Let's jump right onto the computer and see exactly what the acronym is helping you to find. Alright guys, now that we're on the computer we are gonna break down exactly what DCAP-BTLS stands for. Remember we're looking for the EMS acronym.
at DCAP-ETLS for your trauma assessment. These are things that you are looking for actively while you're doing your trauma assessment. First thing that you want to be on the lookout for is a deformity.
Okay, a deformity is anything that looks like it shouldn't be there, like in that particular space. So maybe an angulated fracture of your arm, right? Your arm is bent the opposite direction or your finger instead of being bent downwards at 90 degrees it's bent upwards at 90 degrees or maybe your leg has a giant bulge out of your hip area okay these are deformities there there are bone structures that are not supposed to be there okay the next thing that we're wanting to look for our contusions okay And contusions are just bruises, okay?
So we all know what a bruise is. We just are looking for that, you know, blood vessel breakage right under the skin where the blood collects and creates a bruise, okay? The next thing that we want to look at are abrasions, okay? Now, abrasions think...
Think like the skin knee, right? When you were a kid, you fell off your bike, you got a skin knee, okay? There was a little bit of blood, it wasn't a lot, but it wasn't like a cut, right? You just scraped your knee, you scraped a couple layers of skin off and everything was okay. That is an abrasion.
Think a bigger example would be like road rash, okay? When you're looking at like motorcycle accident victims. Okay, the next thing is a puncture. Okay, so a puncture or a penetration. Okay, and a puncture and a penetration think like stab wounds.
Okay, or maybe GSWs, gunshot wounds. Okay, these are different areas where something forcefully enters the body. in a puncture type manner. So maybe I have a piece of steel rebar and it goes through my hand.
That would be a puncture. You know, a knife wound where someone stabs you with a knife and it enters your skin. That would be a puncture wound.
A penetrating trauma might be like a gunshot wound where, you know, you have the bullet penetrating your skin and going through. all of your muscle and organ tissue okay these are punctures and penetrations next are burns okay b is for burns and remember you have first second and third degree burns that you guys need to be aware of and exactly what they look like so you can sit there and be like yep that's a burn okay it looks like second degree okay i can move on okay next thing would be tenderness Okay, and you ask Mike how the heck am I supposed to see Tenderness well as you're palpating these areas You're when you're specifically looking for tenderness you're looking for a patient reaction. You're looking for maybe a wince or Them to pull away a little bit or them to verbally say like I'll do that hurts, right?
You're looking for that tenderness that pain associated around an injury site okay or an area next you have a laceration okay now these are your cuts okay these aren't your scrapes these are your cuts okay you you are in working in the shop and you're working with a box cutter and it slices your finger open uh that is a laceration Or you fall down and you... you cut yourself on you know the sidewalk that would be a laceration okay glass breaking and slicing your hand those types of cuts whether they be smooth or jagged edged are called lacerations and lastly is swelling, okay? When we're looking for swelling, we're looking for that fluid buildup around an injury site, right? We see that things are not the size that they should be. They're a little bit bigger because...
fluid has traveled there help with the injury. So guys, that's DCAP-BTLS. To be honest, this is one of my least favorite EMS acronyms.
And here's why. Typically I see students practicing their trauma assessments and while touching each body part, they announce, I'm palpating the arm or whatever body part, looking for DCAP-BTLS. The students consistently assess for the acronym and not the specific findings outlined within the acronym.
So if you're just starting out, don't fall into this trap. Announce the specific trauma abnormalities you're searching for. This will ensure that when you're assessing your first real trauma patient in the field, you don't overlook something significant because it wasn't DCAP BTLS. Well guys, that's it for today's video. Stay safe out there and I will see you...
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