Medical Kit Visual Guide: Choosing the Right Kit for You

We’ve been producing medical kits at ITS for over a decade and one of the most frequent questions we get is, “What medical kit should I choose?” It can be a daunting task when you’re just beginning your preparedness journey to know where to focus first, so today we wanted to offer the answer to that question in a more visual format to help distill it down into two basic questions.

Choosing a Medical Kit

It might be a difficult first question to face, as emergencies don’t warn you before they arrive and they certainly don’t tell you what the damage will be. However, it’s important to break medical kits up into two camps in your head, major and minor injuries. A medical kit geared toward major injuries will focus on treating the most common causes of death in traumatic scenarios, the first of which is blood loss.

If you’re selecting a medical kit to treat major injuries, you’ll next want to decide whether it’s something you want to keep in a bag, on a vest, in a vehicle, or whether it’s something you want to carry on your person. For off-body carry, we recommend starting with the vacuum-sealed ETA Trauma Kit. It’s the original commercially-available vacuum-sealed trauma kit that fits almost anywhere and has the equipment needed for treating major injuries. We’d also recommend adding a tourniquet and either our Fatboy or Tallboy Trauma Kit Pouch. These pouches allow you to carry either the vacuum-sealed kit, or to break the contents down in the organization of the pouch for faster access.

The first line of defense in a traumatic scenario is commonly to apply a tourniquet, which is why we advocate not having one sealed or buried inside your kit.  Keeping the tourniquet mounted in an easily accessible location helps with the expedited nature of deploying a tourniquet in an emergency situation. We’ve developed the ITS TourniQuick® to save valuable time, because seconds count when you’re bleeding out.

For those looking to treat major injuries, but carry something in their pockets, look no further than the EDC Trauma Kit. Containing a full-size tourniquet, hemostatic gauze and gloves, this pocket-sized kit keeps you prepared to stop traumatic bleeding. For belt or backpack mounting, consider adding the Slimline Pouch.

What About Minor Injuries?

If all of the above seems a bit above your level and you’re just looking for a medical kit for life’s smaller cuts and scrapes, then you’re dealing with minor injuries. Treating these day-to-day injuries won’t get your name in the newspaper, but you’re far more likely to encounter them in daily life.

Again, it’s important to ask yourself if you’ll want to carry this kit in a bag or other location, or on your person. If it’s off-body, our first recommendation is always the ITS First Aid Kit. This is the kitchen sink of first aid kits, with a variety of supplies and enough of them that you’re not having to constantly restock. Some popular additions to this kit are the 4×4 EMS Dressing, Vetbond Tissue Adhesive and the durable ITS Nylon Zip Bag.

If you’re looking for a minor injury solution that fits in your pocket, you can’t go wrong with the Pocket First Aid Kit. We’ve taken the most popular and frequently used items in our larger ITS First Aid Kit and included them in the durable Crush-Proof Case. As with the EDC Trauma Kit, if you’re looking to carry this on your belt or a backpack, consider adding a Slimline Pouch to assist.

No matter what type of injuries or scenarios you want to be prepared for, we have the kits and gear you need to prevail. Above is just a small sample of the items we offer to keep you prepared and equipped for whatever may come. Click here to view our entire lineup of medical products.