PASG / MAST in the field

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Permalink Reply by B Small on January 27, 2009 at 2:14pm

I don't worry about the good/bad debate of mast pants. They were the thing to use when I first started years ago then went out of style. Now research is saying tey are in again. That being said, I have used them one time on a major trauma 35 to 40 miles from the nearest trauma center. It did help the pt vital signs for a few minutes ,until he coded waiting for the helicopter. I would not hesitate to use them again given a similar situation,and would use them as a splint if that was all I had.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on January 27, 2009 at 7:44pm

If the patient died prior to transport, what good were the MAST?

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly A Bownas on January 27, 2009 at 2:30pm

We have them and the big thing that I was told is that if you do use them make sure the ER doesn't cut them off the patient. When I took the EMT class the first time, we were shown how to use them. When I tried again we weren't taught anything about them. We were told that they are not even used anymore. Like I said we have them but we don't use them. Train hard and stay safe...

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Permalink Reply by Jared Ryker on February 7, 2009 at 12:16am

We dont carry them we pulled them off the trucks when they all dry rotted. but yes a big pain

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Permalink Reply by Doc82 on February 17, 2009 at 8:59pm

PASG/MAST based on where you are from or what you knew them as have been shown to cause more harm than good. The really only use we teach here is for splinting "open book" pelvic fractures, however, with the advent of the SAM pelvic sling we have stopped teaching the use of MAST all together. Some of our front line units still carry them, and some of the older medics still like to have them around, but they are almost never used. Most nurses dont even bother looking to see if they can be removed w/o being cut off, so ones that are used are rarely returned to service, which has been another contributing factor in the decline of use.

Also the increasing use of permissive hypotension has somewhat effectively removed the MASTs intended effect of forcing blood back into the core to ensure perfusion.

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Permalink Reply by Captain Busy on February 17, 2009 at 9:39pm

Your response to this post was outstanding. Thank you for contributing to the FFN with you obvious expertise! My wife is an ER Trauma RN and confirmed that this was the most recent information out there. Considering that there are over 29K FFN participants now, having folks with specialties oversee posts and provide comments makes this site even more valuable.

TCSS, Mike

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