Hare/Sager/KTD/??

[NREMT-Basic]

I personally feel that the Sager is clumsier, but that may be my lack of experience with it. I prefer the Hare. The other problem I have found with the Sager is that we were told to apply 20% of the pts body weight in traction. We applied this device to a "casuality" during a MCI drill and found that anything close to 20% damn near pulled the leg out of the socket. We kept tinkering with it and found that in average about 7-8% was what the patient could tolerate and which also provided sufficient traction. Any thoughts from those who have more experience with this device than I do. I would appreicate it. Thanks.

[nsmedic393]

We use the sager exclusively here. I have done some training with the hare though and i always thought the big flaw with it was that if you applied it to someone on the ground and then had to move them you lost traction...

[BEorP]

I personally feel that the Sager is clumsier, but that may be my lack of experience with it. I prefer the Hare. The other problem I have found with the Sager is that we were told to apply 20% of the pts body weight in traction. We applied this device to a "casuality" during a MCI drill and found that anything close to 20% damn near pulled the leg out of the socket. We kept tinkering with it and found that in average about 7-8% was what the patient could tolerate and which also provided sufficient traction. Any thoughts from those who have more experience with this device than I do. I would appreicate it. Thanks.

We are taught to do 10% of the pt's weight to a max of 15 lbs of traction for a femur.

[NREMT-Basic]

10 per cent of pts weight definately sounds more like it. Thanks for the info. Maybe now I will be more likely to use them and I agree with NSMedic that one of the problems with the Hare can be losing traction when you have to move the patient. Get it all nice and set with good taught traction and a patient who has stopped screaming quite so much, and then you loose it when you move them. Maybe I will have to experiment some with the Sager. I dont want to just write it off because I have had bad experiences with it...especially since some of our services carry both and the ones that dont tend to carry the Sager more often.

Thanks folks.

[chevy]

We are taught to do 10% of the pt's weight to a max of 15 lbs of traction for a femur.

To add...We are taught that for a hip or tib/fib Fx. The max should be 10% to a max of 5 lbs. The point is to restore the limb to as near normal anatomical alignment as you can, reducing impingement on neuro/vascular structures. The force required will vary by pt.

We practice alot with the Sager (fiddlely bugger, with all that velcro) although the pro's tell us that they seldom use it. That being said, one of our instructors used one a couple a weeks ago on a broken femur resulting from fall off a roof.

Happy politically correct seasonal greeting inseted here. :bigsmurf:

[NREMT-Basic]

thanks for the further information. I think one of the reasons I havent liked the Sager is all that velcro, as you pointed out. But I am going to go to the crew I volley with and practice with it, even though we dont use them all that often. Another benchmark we were taught for tensions/lbs was when the patient goes "OH MY F'ING GOD!" and then "Ahhhhh." You have pretty good idea that there pain is decreased and you can lock down the settings at that point. Thats haphazard for course, but I think what they were actually saying is that once the pain has diminished, the impingements are greatly decreased. One medic I worked with claims that he uses muscle relaxers but it seems to me that once some degree of alignment has been reached and impingement at least partially relieved, you would want the muscles to "grab" to a certain extent. Anyone have any thoughts or was this just another new medic (he never goes anywhere without something to indicate his "status") blowing smoke for an intervention ie muscle relaxers that would either be useless or contraindicated. One of my medic preceptors said that once that bone settles back in a little, the muscles will tend to tighten around it, helping to hold it somewhat steady until it can be surgically or ortho repaired. I have only run on one broken femure before with a rural service and we used towel roles and those orange splinting boards that can be cut down to size. Thanks for the info. I have alot of interest in skeletal trauma so I will take any input I can get.

[Ambulance Al]

We use the sager exclusively here. I have done some training with the hare though and i always thought the big flaw with it was that if you applied it to someone on the ground and then had to move them you lost traction...

You need to have the patient on a spine board or use a clam-shell/scoop type stretcher to lift the patient. The patient after all needs to be supine for the SAGER to be effective.

[Dustdevil]

Meh... the Sager is a great splint, but definitely not designed for use on REAL men.

The KTD is a lot gentler on the jewels.