air splint

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Related to air splint: Vacuum splint

air splint

An inflatable cylinder used to immobilize fractured or injured limbs to promote healing.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in periodicals archive ?

(Pressure greater than atmospheric pressure is called positive pressure.) Scientists have long described CPAP as an "air splint for the upper airway" believing that the pressurized air exerts an outward pushing force against the upper airway structures that is greater than the inward pulling force acting on the structures during an apneic episode.

Lung volume and obstructive sleep apnea

The guides sprang into action, producing an air splint and a litter that had been tucked away in they woods for just such an occasion.

Up the creek with a broken ankle: a gentle trip down a scenic river turns into a painful, dramatic adventure