# What type of splint device to you use or like the best ?



## eynonqrs (May 27, 2009)

I was wondering what kind of splinting device(s) that everyone uses or likes the best.  I personally like the air splints.


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## DrankTheKoolaid (May 27, 2009)

*re*

Sager for femurs and SAM splints for pretty much anything else.  Great, lightweight, don't take up much space in the truck and once you learn to use them correctly they are great splints


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## lightsandsirens5 (May 27, 2009)

Sager for the femur (of course) and vacume splints for the rest.


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## mycrofft (May 28, 2009)

*Limited fx splinting, but:*

Pillow splint for ankles and wrists, basic traction splint for femur fx (Sager looks good), SAM generally. Anatomic self-splinting is good for use until the ambulance arrives for us, or when you don't have a splint or ran out of them. Hand and finger fx: bulk 4X4's and Medirip.


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## Sasha (May 28, 2009)

I haven't used it extensively, but the limited application I've had with the vacuum splints, I like them.


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## Mountain Res-Q (May 28, 2009)

Most of my stuff is improvised or SAM.

One emplyeer is too cheep to get anything past cardboard (and a few SAMs if we beg)... which means a lot of improvising to get it right.  Had a dislocated shoulder last season and all she could do is keep it stretched out at a 90 degree angle.  Built some strange carbdoard stabilizing / triangular SAM splint deal to keep it proped up.

On SAR... SAM all the way.  Lighweight and can be fashion for anything.  If we don't have one... make one out of hiking poles, snowshoes, sticks, oars, whatever.

So obvioulsy I love my SAMs, but would like to get my hands on air/vacuum... hear through the grape vine that they rock.


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## mycrofft (May 28, 2009)

*No one is saying "ladder splints".*

I don't like em.


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## marineman (May 29, 2009)

SAM splints for me (vacuum and air splints both seem to have issues with cold weather). I like the Kendrick for femurs.


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## Mountain Res-Q (May 29, 2009)

marineman said:


> SAM splints for me (vacuum and air splints both seem to have issues with cold weather). I like the Kendrick for femurs.



Kendrick traction?  How is that?  I've been looking into it...


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## Jon (May 29, 2009)

Vacuum splints are AWESOME... but cost a lot.

SAM splints are very versatile.
I can make a board splint work for anything I need to stabilize - the joys of being brought up on Boy Scout First Aid.


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## medicdan (May 29, 2009)

I LOVE pillow splints, and use them whenever I can. I am a crew chief on a college campus EMS service, so at least 40% of my calls are orthopedic to some degree. For minor lower extremities, they tend to get an ace bandage, ice pack, and sometimes a cardboard "frac-pak", which although I disliked at first, have grown to respect. Although I cannot find a picture right now, it is basically a piece of cardboard lined with foam, which is cut to fit, and velco strapped on. 

For anything major, they get a pillow and ride to the hospital.


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## marineman (May 29, 2009)

Mountain Res-Q said:


> Kendrick traction?  How is that?  I've been looking into it...



I absolutely love it, it doesn't provide the level of precision measuring of your traction like the sager does but it's much less bulky to carry around and I can get it on much quicker than any of the others for those times when you need something and you need it now.

I was pretty unsure of it when I started at this service since I had never used it before but now that I got used to it I wouldn't want to use anything else.


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## lightsandsirens5 (May 30, 2009)

marineman said:


> SAM splints for me (vacuum and air splints both seem to have issues with cold weather). I like the Kendrick for femurs.



What kind of issues with cold? We use vacum splints and I love them. I have used them on 110 degree days, 0 degree days, and even once on a 20 degree below day and they have always worked fine. Have you had problems with?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*edit for my previous post. We don't use the Sager, we use the KED traction device.


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## LucidResq (May 30, 2009)

Ortho-Glass! I wish. 



Mountain Res-Q said:


> Kendrick traction?  How is that?  I've been looking into it...



I know a bunch of Ski Patrollers, and a few SAR folks out here carry the Kendrick and love it, mainly for the portability.


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## Mountain Res-Q (May 30, 2009)

LucidResq said:


> I know a bunch of Ski Patrollers, and a few SAR folks out here carry the Kendrick and love it, mainly for the portability.



Ya, that's my main thing.  I am thinking about putting them in next years budget... but who knows what kind of budget we will have then.T  Yet, I have never had to use traction on SAR... yet...  But, when we do, a more portable traction device would rock!

NOTE:  The county ambulance and fire have been doing a recent shuffle on quarters and in the process they thinned out their storage of hares... and wouldn't you know it... we somehow inherited them all.  Then someone decided to just shove them on the SAR units.  One of the units had 4 hares in a side compartment at one point.  Government!!!


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## mycrofft (May 31, 2009)

*Are those the Hare's with straps and a ratchet and pawl takeup reel on the end...*

...or the olive drab ones with no straps and no takeup reel, you have to use cravats to tie them on then make a Spanish Windlass out of a couple cravats and a stick for tension.
(Anyone else out here old enough to remember what a Spanish Windlass is? Anyone? At all??)


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## HotelCo (May 31, 2009)

I'm not a fan of air splints. Sorry, but I don't want to put that thing into my mouth.


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## Hal9000 (May 31, 2009)

mycrofft said:


> ...or the olive drab ones with no straps and no takeup reel, you have to use cravats to tie them on then make a Spanish Windlass out of a couple cravats and a stick for tension.
> (Anyone else out here old enough to remember what a Spanish Windlass is? Anyone? At all??)





I'm not old enough, I suppose, but I've done it all the same.  Only for demonstration purposes, and only because the kit didn't have one of those nifty premade cuffs and links. The ickle students learned to improvise that day...


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## Scout (Jun 5, 2009)

Tri angular bandages? Are these a lost art form?



Vacume splint are nice too.


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## TraumaJunkie (Jun 7, 2009)

KED and pillows. 
 In some of our trucks, the time it takes to get out the padded board splints or any of the ortho splints out of the over stuffed and jammed bench seat i could already be @ the ER. 
 As far as vacuum splints go. More often then not the air or vacuum splint will be cut off and destroyed by the ED staff. (how many of you remember the days of MAST trousers and the heads that would roll if anything happened to those) Unfortunately because of the cost of the equipment and the ever lowering payout of insurance company's. Anything that cant be cheaply replaced ( with the exception of lifesaving equipment) will not be placed on the trucks unless required by the state.


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## nomofica (Jun 11, 2009)

Sager, SAMs, air...


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## Small_Town_EMT (Jul 21, 2009)

I haven't had to use many splints yet, but I have used rigid padded boards a few times, as well as vacuum splints, and I much prefer the vacuum splints.


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