Have you seen what the PrepMedic thinks of the Slishman Traction Splint - Compact (STS-C)? View his full video review or read the full transcript below!

“…the Slishman Traction Splint, I think, is a game changer and I'm actually pushing really, really hard to get this on our ambulances and our helicopters.”

“…the packaging it comes in is substantially smaller than other traction splints on the market. Those of you guys that are still using Hare Traction Splints or Sager Traction Splints - either of these will be a game changer but this one is a lot lighter a lot smaller, can fit in almost any pack quite easily…”

“…main advantages are: super lightweight, super compact, and then it's easy to apply to patients, and it doesn't stick out past the leg.”

Introduction

“Hey guys, my name's Sam and welcome to PrepMedic. In this week's video, I'm giving a full walkthrough and overview of the Slishman Traction Splint Compact, or the STS-C for short.”

Overview

“…for a quick overview, when you break your femur, this is a very large, long bone - now this will cause these bones to overlap and oftentimes it'll shorten the leg. This causes a lot of pain for the patient. It can also cause a lot of unnecessary bleeding. Your thigh can actually hold between one and two liters of blood, and for an average adult male having five to six liters in their entire body, this is a ton - and if you have two bilateral femur fractures, this is considered a life-threatening emergency.

So, what a traction splint does, is it actually pulls down on the leg and it will get these bones back into an anatomical position that both decreases the space in your

thigh for blood to fill and it also brings those bones back into an anatomic position so they will bleed less. It helps the patient's pain substantially. So, that's when we use traction splints, it's really the only time we use traction splits.

Now in the past, I have used the KTD, Kendrick Traction Device, and it's been rebranded as the Tactical Traction Splint by North American Rescue. This is a great device; this is what I cover in my other video - it's basically a bunch of tent poles and it comes in a package like this. Pretty small, however, the Slishman Traction Splint, I think, is a game changer and I'm actually pushing really, really hard to get this on our ambulances and our helicopters, just because it has so many advantages, in my mind.

So first and foremost, the packaging it comes in is substantially smaller than other traction splints on the market. Those of you guys that are still using Hare Traction Splints or Sager Traction Splints - either of these will be a game changer but this one is a lot lighter a lot smaller, can fit in almost any pack quite easily, they even market it as something for disaster medicine, or search and rescue because it is so easy to be packed into different kinds of backpacks and gear bags.

So, coming into this case to actually get to the traction splint. When you open it up, what's really nice about the Slishman is that it is one piece - technically it's two because there is a strap for rotational stability, but you really only have this one piece. There are no tent poles to assemble, there's not a ton of straps. You have a permanently attached ankle strap. You have a permanently attached thigh strap. And then you have the bar in the middle.

So, what's really nice is that this is good for both adult and pediatric patients. You don't need a separate device for either one. To activate it, to start with you just pull this out. It will lock into place, and this gives you the length.

Now, that brings me to the second advantage of this. This does not attach to the foot. This attaches to the calf which means if the patient has severe lower leg injury, so

their tib fib is broken or they have an amputation of the foot, you can still treat the femur fracture, so long as the upper calf is not affected because that's where this secures. Now, this end here goes up in the groin, similar to pretty much every other traction splint on the market.

I will go through after we finish talking about the contents and show you exactly how to apply this, but basically this goes on the calf, this goes on the groin, you extend this out, and then you use this cord here to give it extra traction and it pulls traction on itself and gives you that leverage to pull those bone ends back together. Then this will secure in that loop pretty easily. Once you have it secure, obviously since you don't have an ankle strap, your foot is liable to rotate back, and forth which isn't good that's not actually stabilizing the bone very well. So, what they've come up with is this ankle strap that can be used to go around both your feet and can wrap them together so your feet are going to be side by side. That will help with that rotational stability. It'll be a lot harder for it to go one direction or the other.

So, all in all, this thing is super easy to apply. They advertise that it can be applied under 60 seconds. I would argue that almost any traction splint can be if you train well enough with it, however this is exceptionally easy to use and there's just nothing to put together. You don't even really need to measure it, which is a game changer and something that we really haven't seen in other traction splints.

So, main advantages are: super lightweight, super compact, and then it's easy

to apply to patients, and it doesn't stick out past the leg. So, while this isn't a huge deal in most ambulances, you can usually fit them, sit them up a little bit farther on the cot in a helicopter where you don't have a lot of room. The Sagers, the Hares, and even the KTD, which is really small, do not fit in an aircraft - you have to kind of jury rig things. This will fit in an aircraft just fine.

Application

Now we're going to demonstrate the application of this traction splint. For the purposes of this demonstration, we're going to assume we've identified a midshaft femur fracture somewhere in this region. Generally speaking, this splint will work better if you actually expose the leg and it goes to skin. However, we're not going to do that for this video. So, in this case the first thing we're going to do is extend the traction splint so it's locked out, or this black portion is locked out. Generally, you're going to do that for anybody over 50 kilograms. Anybody under, that we're going to put that in.

We're going to take this strap here and this is a neoprene strap. Feed it under the natural gap created by the knee and then we're going to come just proximal to the calf -so, the calf muscle is going to be what actually keeps the splint from riding down. You don't need to crank down on this strap, but I'd get it relatively tight to make sure it stays

in a good position.

Now, we have the waist strap and I'm going to feed this under the leg. One of the easiest ways to do this if you have somebody pulling manual traction. As long as they're pulling manual traction, they can have the leg lifted slightly - that's going to relieve some

pain of the patient. It's also going to let me slide that strap under their leg with minimal movement. If I'm by myself though, I can just take this and I can kind of get it under the

leg. I have to be mindful of the injury to make sure I'm not making it any worse and not causing the patient any undue pain.

But, for this we're going to slide this under the leg as best we can, and we're going to slide that up into the groin a little bit more. It doesn't need to be super tight, it just needs to be snug. I'm going to tighten that down.

Now, to actually apply traction to the patient's leg, I have this pull tab here and I can pull this myself. Dr. Slishman usually has the patient pull it with him, until the patient has pain relief and you see that deformity minimizes slightly.

I'm going to take this, I'm just going to slowly pull out until the patient feels relief. I can take this and push it back and then it locks into place on this cleat right here. That's not going anywhere and then I can always readjust it if I need to as time goes on.

So, that's in place - I still have a lot of rotational effects on this leg and I really need to keep this foot from going back and forth. So, what I’m going to do is, I'm going to take the  [Slishman] pressure wrap that's supplied with this kit. I'm going to put that around one foot here. I'm going to take the other leg, put it right next to it, and then I’m going to wrap the feet together.

So, this is going to keep the feet from going side to side, going to keep further injury from occurring. Generally if I’m doing a traction splint, I also want to immobilize the hip. So, I’ll try to have these people on a full body vacuum splint, a scoop stretcher, or just a stretcher, and try to keep them from coming up off the cot because that

Will move this bone and diminish the effectiveness of my immobilization. Last

but not least, I'm going to check circulation, motion, sensation, down at the feet to make sure that I didn't make anything worse through the application of the traction splint.

Conclusion

I hope you guys found this video useful. If you have any questions about this device or any of the Slishman Traction Splints, please leave them in the comments down below and I will see you next week you.