Hip Injury

[housert]

You have a call to a pt. who fell and presents with obviouse hip deformity. What have you found to be the best method to use in stabilizing the hip?

 

[Ridryder911]

Whatever works and best at the time. SAM splint, pillows, tying legs together, etc.

R/r 911

 

[medicdan]

There have been discussions at length on this before. Please do a search. I also recommend the discussion in "BLS Discussion" about patient movement.
To answer the question, if time and positioning allow, I use a KED to stabilize the hip and pelvis.

 

[beachemt]

I was told a great way to stabalize the hips and hig femur was to use a KED. A KED you might ask? yes but you flip it over and use it upside down.Attach the chest part around the pelvis and use the neck part rolled up inbetween the thighs. I have not personally tried it but the EMT-B I was with swore by it and the P confirmed it .

 

[traumateam1]

As said before...

A KED works well for this, I recommend using a KED for obv. hip deformities. But if you don't have a KAD than use SAMs, Long Splint and Short Splint, even securing to a long backboard and manual support if need be. But I'm going with a KED.

 

[Northstar453]

I have found that the Vacumats work the best for any sort of hip injury...example, Me and my partner were called to a little old lady that fell and had noticable hip deformity and retraction of the leg. we placed a Vacmat under her and rolled her on her back, strapped her into it and then used a pump to draw the air out of it. This secured the hip so well when we got her into the truck she had no pain because of the stabilization, so she required no pain meds from the medic I was working with.

Heres a site that sells them but has a description of what they are, for those that may have not heard of them before.

http://www.savelives.com/cgi-bin/instock.pl?group=2&subgroup=6

 

[mikie]

here is a thread I started a while back about hip immobilization

http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=8692