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KED Vest Application - Leg Straps


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A controvesy arose in a referesher class I'm taeching, when one of my lab instructors told students that the leg straps on a KED vest could be applied either over the top of the leg, down the medial aspect, then under the leg, and up the lateral aspect, OR, under the leg from the leateral side and up the medial side.

I've been looking for manufacturer's recommendations but can't find any.

Any thoughts?

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Our county approved educational sheets say it can be applied cris-cross or on each leg separately. I think that's the two ways you were describing. We generally teach you wrap around each leg separately, though.

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Not sure what the manufacturer recommends, but my gut says its not necessarily about how you apply the straps, as long as the legs are immobilized for the transfer. Once the transfer is done, the Pt's legs are lowered anyway, to make it anatomically correct...so to speak.

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I love this piece of equipment and use it when ever possible. I place the straps under the legs and up through and hook them up on the same side. I don't criss cross because the boy pts don't like getting things caught up.

happy

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The whole point of the leg straps is to simply keep the device snug on the patient so he does not slip out of it as you extricate him. So long as it achieves that end, I don't think there is any right or wrong way. Intuitively, I would speculate criss-crossing to be the more secure method, but that is only an untested assumption.

Although, I understand your question to ask if it is okay to wrap each leg clockwise as well as counter-clockwise, or if only one method is acceptable, not if criss-crossing is acceptable. With every extrication scenario being unique, I've been forced to use all three methods at one time or another. In fact, there are plenty of times that you are unable to secure the leg straps at all.

Since this is a teaching scenario, I'd use the opportunity to teach everyone involved, including yourself, by experimenting with all three methods to determine which is most secure. Seeing is believing. But really, this thing has been out for nearly twenty-five years now. If it were that critical, I think we'd have seen that in big, bold red writing by now.

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The whole point of the leg straps is to simply keep the device snug on the patient so he does not slip out of it as you extricate him. So long as it achieves that end, I don't think there is any right or wrong way. Intuitively, I would speculate criss-crossing to be the more secure method, but that is only an untested assumption.
Agreed. That is the method I use.

In an unrelated point, I used the KED to immobilise a 1 y/o/m with a head injury last night. Works beauty!

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I don't criss cross because the boy pts don't like getting things caught up.

That is why we learned the KEDs and IDEAs (Kendricks Extrication Device and Iron Duck Extrication Appliance), it was with padding at the groin on both sexes.

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A controvesy arose in a referesher class I'm taeching, when one of my lab instructors told students that the leg straps on a KED vest could be applied either over the top of the leg, down the medial aspect, then under the leg, and up the lateral aspect, OR, under the leg from the leateral side and up the medial side.

I've been looking for manufacturer's recommendations but can't find any.

Any thoughts?

I agree with Dust's interpretation in what you are asking, clockwise vs counterclockwise.

I also agree immobilization is a subjective skill, if you accomplish your goal without doing harm, you did it right.

To answer I believe under the leg up the medial side would be the proper way This is being based on the way the strap is angled on the device which is a poor assumption on my part

As pictured below the straps look like they should come forward not off to the side as you would need to in the first method you described (over the top of the leg, down the medial aspect, then under the leg)

[web:246a53f3a6]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/KED.jpg[/web:246a53f3a6]

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