Sam Splint as a Cervical Collar
The Sam Splint has achieve fame as a practical, versatile splinting devise with many features and benefits which lend themselves to pre-hospital care. While it plays the Jack-of-all-trades very well, can it actually compete - in terms of functionality and effectiveness as credible alternative to something as important as a dedicated Cervical Collar?
This paper (1) explains the research, undertaken by Drexel University College of Medicine, to examine functional differences between the improvised splint and the Philadelphia Collar - a common dedicated cervical collar. The outcome?
"The results of this study suggest that the SAM splint, when molded into a cervical collar, is as effective as the Philadelphia collar at limiting movement of the cervical spine"
The results of this study suggest that the SAM splint, when molded into a cervical collar, is as effective as the Philadelphia collar at limiting movement of the cervical spine.
And this is how it is done:
Even improvised collars using a fleece jacket are able to provide the same degree as support as a dedicated collar. (2)
SO why do we carry them?
References
McGrath T, Murphy C. (2009) “Comparison of a SAM splint-molded cervical collar with a Philadelphia cervical collar.” Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. 20(2):166-8
Porter, Anne et al. (2019) “Improvised vs Standard Cervical Collar to Restrict Spine Movement in the Backcountry Environment”. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. 30(4):412-6