traction splints

[Horse Feathers]

Recently purchased one with their buy back deal for Hare splints, but no use yet.

I was thinking that because the lower hitch can be applied proximal to the calf, it might be do-able to actually apply in the rig... not that I would ever try it...

 

[Tigger]

Why not? We bought it primarily because it offers more options than other traction splints, it's smaller, and the price was right.

 

[Fire51]

I live where it snows a lot during winter, so we get the elderly people who slip on ice or people who have fallen off ladders trying to clear snow off the satellite. So I have used it about three time, they work good but it's only for a closed mid shaft femur fracture, like everyone else has said, and a lot of the time the hip is associated with the femur fracture.

 

[teedubbyaw]

A traction splint is ONLY indicated in a a MID SHAFT femur fracture.

It's stops being the femur and becomes the hip when it's the femoral head and NOT the mid shaft.

And there is a issue with traction splints; You can never be certain it is an isolated femur fx.

 

[Christopher]

As a small "by the way," the literature (weakly) supports the use of traction splints for either closed or open fractures.

The important part, which EMS likely never does, is irrigation and taking a pre-traction/bandaging photo.