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There are different types of tibia and fibula fractures that can occur, and the difference can be significant with respect to the severity of the injury, the nature of the treatment, and the duration of the recovery. It is not uncommon that these bones are fractured in car accidents involving a collision between two vehicles or when a car strikes a bicyclist or a pedestrian.
#Tib fib fracture nfl manual#
Manual traction is the act of manually applying force to straighten the angulated/deformed extremity prior to splinting.The tibia and fibula are the two long bones in your lower leg that stretch from your knee to your ankle (what you might refer to as your shin bones). (Is that what you are implying? That we never apply traction on anything open in the first place?)ī. Indications for manual traction, as I understand it on ANY long bone fracture, is deformity, inability to fit into splinting material, angulation or loss of distal cms.
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At least we as ems field workers never would.Ī. You would never release tension on the traction splint, again I think that was just lost in translation. All traction can be applied by the traction splint.Ĭ. If I remember correctly, the femur injury only has to be stabilized before using the traction splint. (While we are at it, it was never explained to me if a traction splint could be used an open femur fracture - could you explain that to me? I imagine it would fall under the indication of deformed if it was isolated, however i'm not sure.)ī. Painful, swollen, deformed, isolated mid-thigh injury with no other leg injury - contraindications would be anything other than those conditions. Is manual traction to realign open fractures worth the additional trauma it may cause?Īll that said here are the answers to your questions to the best of my ability. So then no manual traction is being held, what is to stop those bones from sliding on top of one another and causing further harm? -That is the essence of my question. So in the case of an open long bone fracture, lets say radius/ulna this time, we pull manual traction and the bones are realigned. However, wouldn't that be pretty much the same thing? - The same as in getting someone with a femur fracture (with indications) secured into a traction splint and then just loosening up the straps and cranks? - Obviously something we would never do. I think you got a little confused, I am not saying you are to "release tension" on a traction splint - I was only equating that to pulling manual traction on an open long bone (not femur) fracture, and then letting go once the bone is realigned - obviously we are not holding traction on a long bone fracture all the way to the operating room.
#Tib fib fracture nfl skin#
Do you stop traction and splint in place? What about open fractures where the entire foot lets say, is only holding on by thin muscle, skin and fat? - Do I just kinda "put it back" and splint in some form or another in place?!?Īnyone see what i'm talking about here? If anyone has any common sense/experience/knowledge towards this topic please help! The PT screams in pain, you are obviously doing more harm then good, bleeding is increasing in severity. You splint the injury and everything is fine all the way to transfer of care.īut what if it's not? Using that same tib/fib example, along with most other open long bone fractures, what if as you are applying traction the bones do slip back into place, but they are now in such a way that they are cutting/damaging surrounding tissue? - Almost like a traction splint that you just "release tension" on after all that work. You and your partner attempt manual traction and the bones slip back into alignment. (make up a funny story Minimal bleeding, cms intact - best case scenario to you. Lets say you have open Tib/Fib fracture as the only injury/complaint/finding. So i'm just looking for some general guidelines. I understand the importance of realigning deformed extremities, but my understanding on the exacts of some situations elude me - obviously baring that almost every situation will be different. Ok, stupid questions incoming from new EMT.
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