My reason for asking about these is I do some solo camping & hiking, if I ever sprained an ankle or broke one, after reading what was said in the book, I thought the air-cast may be an option worth looking into.

I carry one or the other of these on my keychains:

http://www.allmed.net/catalog/item/87/966

http://www.allmed.net/catalog/item/87/144


My 2 cents worth on air casts:
- easy to use
- effective
- bulky
- prone to cracking if stored in high heat or cold and not used for a long time
- I wouldn’t try walking very far with one on (not very durable used this way and bulk beneath foot would make walking interesting)

I would second using a SAM splint (make sure you have an appropriate ACE wrap or equivalent) (much more durable to walk on and much less bulk under foot)

Air-splints are not to be used anymore, because they apply pressure to a fracture, wich can cause more damage. Use a vacuum-splint or SAM-splint.

Cast
-Air splints have and had their place.
-they are unstable to some degree, as well as they have issues with air leakage, risk of compartment syndrome, etc,...
-walking one one........not really and option, due to risk of bursting, not to mention, no one should ever contemplate walking on a fresh fracture, unless its life or death......the risk of complications are too great.


- I fully back the infamous SAM splint, they are reliable, nearly indestructable, and work in a multitude of applications, lightweight,shall i say more?

-CPR mask
-google for Laerdal pocket mask
-top of the line/a little bulky/has a nice filter
also check micro-shield, nice alternative, decent one-way valve, no filter, yet compact and comes in a key chain case option

marduk, if that first one works, I think I'm going to have to get one of those. That looks almost as if the plastic has tape or some sticky side to seal the victim's mouth and nose. Is that the case or do you simply hold that down with your hand like you would a full-size or collapsible mask?

As for the 'splints' go with the SAM. If you have a 'base camp' (ie. a cabin), and you have the money, the vaccuum splints are fantastic.....

As for the pocket mask....new studies show that 'respirations' aren't as important as originally though. In Japan they are doing CPR with a non-rebreather mask (think of a simple face mask that provides oxygen to a breathinbg patient) on the patient while CPR is bing done. From what we've heard, they've had pretty good outcomes....Though my medical director isn't going that route yet, we have completley changed our medical guidelines....we no longer intubate a patient in arrest....basically they say to just "Pump Hard, Pump Fast and don't stop". Now we don't even check for a pulse after we defibrillate them (shock them)....we go RIGHT BACK to CPR....no stopping. We stop when someone feels a good pulse or the heart rhythm changes to something we think should give us a pulse. I don't even carry one in my vehicle anymore....

Before we start advocating that, let's see what the long term trials say - at least for professional rescuers. Though, isn't Bystander CPR going in this direction?

Not sure I'm all that thrilled with this "don't ventilate" mentality, but I'll stay off my soapbox here.

I'm not too sure about the 'don't ventillate' mentalitity either......and I'm NOT saying that there shouldn't be ANY and neither are the governing bodies...I agree that we need to see what the long term studies say.....but more and more research is showing that even that 'quick pulse check' is dropping the oxygen level far below what the brain requires.....

We haven't stopped ventilating.....yet. But remember that even if you don't have a mask.....COMPRESS THE CHEST!!!!!!!!!! My medical director allows us to administer Diprivan prehospitally and WITHOUT having to call a doctor for permission! Some of our ER doctors can't continue it's administration because the hospital requires that an Anesthesiologist administer it....so we are pretty cutting edge in our care....and he is saying...don't be so fast to get that airway....compress first.....


In college, my biochemistry professor told us of the dean of a medical school who stood up at the podium at commencement and said, "I must, on behalf of this institution, apologize, because half of what we have taught you, is wrong. I must further apologize, because no one knows which half."

Kind of sums up medicine....things change so much and so frequently, that we can barely keep up...

All the updates everyone is chatting over are AHA guidelines.(american heart.org).................as some said its everchanging,but when you really think of it...........cpr hasnt really ever changed that drastically over the past decade, you breath and compress.............

Yes...you breathe, you compress....but things HAVE changed....when I first began this there was the 'head tilt/neck lift' (yes I'm dating myself with THAT one)....and you gave 4 SLOW breaths....now its2 breaths and compress.....it use to be 80 comp/min....now you're doing 100+......and the breathing has changed....so yes you breathe and you compress.....but things have changed....a lot.