Sager Traction Splint: Mid Femur Fracture

Sager bi-lateral traction splint comes with 4 bands: 2 short,

one medium, one large and one huge. Since it’s bilateral,

it has two booties. One for each foot.

Bilateral sager never needs to have the head reversed, but

it is useful to make sure the D rings are both at the top of

the splint and that the bottom flexes.

Put the splint between the patient’s legs and ask them to

pull it into their crotch as far as they can. For guys, make

sure the make the necessary “adjustments”.

Try to get the sager belt as high on the top of the thigh as

possible. It’ll slip down somewhat as you tighten it so the

higher you start up the better off you will be. As you tighten,

pull from the bottom to get the splint to curve over under

the leg.

The booty goes over the foot for ski boots (as shown here

even though we don’t have ski boots on the patient – course

this patient never has ski boots on..)

Attach the sager booty to the bilateral splint. Make sure there

are no twists in the belt.

Tighten the booty until one of two things occurs:

1) Bottom of sager is directly beneath the foot.

2) All slack comes out of the strap

It’s important to not over-tighten the strap as this will put

traction on the leg.

Pull traction by:

1) Pushing with one arm on the splint into the patient’s crotch.

2) Pulling on the handle one click at a time.

Read the traction setting – black readings are in lbs, red are

in kg. Make sure you pull lbs..

Maximum traction applied to a single leg should be 15 lbs. or

10% of body weight – whichever is LESS.

Maximum traction applied to dual lets should be 30 lbs or

20% of body weight – whichever is LESS.

All sager belts will be threaded under the gap in the knee.

Grab the large sager belt and bring it through. Be careful

with the belts to keep the snow out of the Velcro otherwise

it will not work.

Position the large sager as high on the leg as you can get it

and securely fasten it to the leg. It’s perfectly fine for Sager

belts to go over the injury. It helps secure the injury and

adds direct pressure to help control bleeding.

Bring the next short belt under the knee just like the first

belt.

Depending on patient, position this belt above the knee or

below the knee. It’s important to not put it over the knee.

Position the third sager belt under the knee.

Attach the third sager belt just above the booty on the lower

leg.

Cravat the legs together by running a cravat under the

ankles – just like we do for backboards.

Bring the Huge sager belt under the knees of both legs.

Secure both legs together with the huge sager belt.

In the case of a bilateral injury, you would hook up the

second booty prior to pulling traction. You’d use 3 sager

belts on the limb which was injured the most severely and

then wrap the big belt at the end around both.

Finally, check distal CSM and you’re done..