Dr. Fisher's Procedurettes: Collar Squalor
Dr. Whit Fisher (or as I call him, the MacGyver of Emergency Medicine) is back with the newest installment from his Procedurettes blog!
There's lots of controversy these days about the merits of rigid cervical collars. Here (in his usual zany fashion) he shows us his novel approach to custom spinal immobilization in an elderly female.
Warning: if you have a soft spot for mannequins, watch with caution, because they were most definitely hurt in the production of this video!
For medical professionals only. This Procedurette demonstrates a way to build a C-spine collar out of standard orthopedic splinting material. While the merits of C-spine collars are still debated, agitated patients with a known unstable fracture probably need some form of immobilization before they snap their heads off.