Anterior Shoulder Dislocation Splint: Pigs in a Blanket

Setup the Pigs.. Fold a blanket into quarters. You need 4

cravats. Tie two together and leave two others. This is where

it’s important to identify your cravats. The “super long” cravat

is usually easy to tell. Just tie knots in the ends of one of the

other cravats, or number the ends etc etc.

Roll up the pigs into the blanket.

the blanket will unroll in one direction. Make sure you put

the part which unrolls toward the patient’s chest. Imagine

you are going to roll the wrap over their head. If you put

it on their chest and can unroll it over their head you’ve

got it correct. If on the other hand you start unrolling toward

their feet, you’ve botched it. You’ll see why..

Anterior Shoulder dislocation. Check CSM before and after

splinting.

Patient cannot lower their shoulder. Just insert the pigs in

the blanket and have the patient hold them in place supporting

their injured shoulder.

Tie one set of short cravats into a sling on the patient’s back

side using a square knot.

Tie the second short cravat around the patient’s waist. But

use a bow tie. We’ll be coming back to this knot to pull

it tighter shortly.

Return to the front of the patient and fold the long cravat

coming out of the blanket from the patient’s right side back

over the injured arm and over the blanket for now.

Twist the two cravat’s together and send one down along

the patient’s chest between the blanket and his chest. The

other cravat just hangs down over his arm for now. Think of

this as being the bottom side of a present which you’re

attaching a ribbon to. Doesn’t matter which one goes where,

one needs to go down between chest and blanket.

Tucking the cravat in between the chest and the blanket

is only possible if you put the blanket roll on the patient

properly..

And what do you know, out pops the cravat on the bottom!

Now just tie the two “long” cravats together using a

square knot.

If you have “excessively long” cravats, you might have some “extra fluff”..

Go back to the back of the patient and undo the bow tie you

did.

Ask the patient to take a deep breath and let it out. When they

let it out, tighten the cravats and this time tie a square knot.

Completed Splint. Check for CSM and you’re done!