Stairs Become a Hurdle Post Surgery.
Rehabbing surgery is hard enough. Stairs often stand between you and the comfort of your home. SAW is the walker that helps you get into and out of your house, and gets you back to the second floor.
Stairs Become a Hurdle Post Surgery.
Rehabbing an injury is hard enough. Stairs often stand between you and the comfort of your home. SAW is the walker that helps you with stairs, and gets you back to the second floor or out of the house.
Invented by a Doctor of Physical Therapy
3 USPTO utility patents
1-year limited warranty
Your discharge plan has one bottleneck.
The surgery is done. You're ready to go home.
Except your home has stairs. And you can't do them.
So the discharge planner sends you to a rehab facility. A bed that isn't yours. Meals on a tray. Days or weeks away from home.
SAW removes the bottleneck. The StairAssist Walker helps you with the stairs. You still rehab. You just do it at home.
Built for the recovery you're in.
SAW is built to assist a wide range of stair mobility challenges. Stairs after surgery is a challenge for everyone.
New prosthetic, learning to balance again, or unable to wear the prosthetic on the stairs. Stairs are one of the hardest gait skills to relearn. The standard rehab path keeps you in a facility until you can do them.
After a knee replacement, ACL reconstruction, or other major knee surgery with post-operative restrictions, stairs ask the new joint to do exactly what it isn't ready to do. Bend deeply. Hold all your weight. Push you up to the next step. The standard advice is “good leg up, bad leg down” with a handrail. The standard advice is made for when the operated leg cannot support you.
Hip arthoscopy usually means 3 to 6 weeks of limited weight-bearing on the bad leg. A hip arthoscopy is shorter, but 3 weeks back is still careful. Either way, the staircase at home is what can hold up your discharge..
Hip precautions during recovery limit how far you can bend, twist, or cross your legs. Stairs ask for exactly those motions. The standard advice is one step at a time with the good leg leading. It leaves you balanced on the operated hip, with nothing to sit on if the leg gives.
Ankle fracture, foot fracture, Achilles repair, or post-op foot surgery usually means weeks of non-weight-bearing on one foot. Crutches on stairs are how people can get hurt a second time. Scooting on your bottom is the alternative most patients land on. It works until the day it doesn't.
Femur, tibia, or fibula fractures often mean weeks or months of non-weight-bearing on the bad leg. A surgical repair with plates, screws, or a rod is common. Either way, the bad leg cannot bear your weight on a stair. Hopping on the good leg is how people fall a second time.
After spinal fusion, laminectomy, or discectomy, bending and twisting are restricted. Going up and down stairs the usual way asks the spine to bend and turn exactly when it can't. Many patients end up sleeping downstairs for the first stretch of recovery because the alternative is too risky.
SAW is built around the idea that you can sit in-between every step. Your good leg steps up. You stand. You sit on the next stair. Whatever you're recovering from never has to bear full weight on a single stair. Used with a SAW Certified™ Caregiver, a gait belt, and one handrail.
One device. Two modes.
One handrail, a gait belt, and a SAW Certified™ Caregiver guiding on every stair is required.
One device costs less than a single hospital day.
Daily rates range from about $1,400 in Mississippi to about $4,700 in California. Insurance covers some, not all. The clock starts the day a stair barrier holds up your discharge.
SAW ships to the home you're going back to. Works on the stairs you already have. No installation, no contractor, no permanent change.
SAW costs less than a single hospital day. If a stair barrier is the only thing holding up your discharge, that math closes fast.
Source: AHA Annual Survey via KFF State Health Facts, 2024. Figures represent expenses per adjusted inpatient day at U.S. community hospitals and vary by location, facility type, and coverage.
HOW BUYING SAW WORKS
Five steps. We don't ship until your caregiver is certified.
The IFU requires a certified caregiver. We built buying SAW so your patient qualifies and your caregiver is certified before you pay the full price.
STEP 1
Start your order.
Tell us where to send your information. No commitment yet.
STEP 2
Make sure SAW is right for your patient.
A short qualification covering patient criteria, caregiver criteria, and your home staircase. You'll know if SAW is a fit before you pay anything.
STEP 3
Reserve your SAW with a refundable deposit.
$199 holds your order. Your caregiver completes certification next, then your balance unlocks.
STEP 4
Your caregiver gets certified.
Our Certification ensures safe and proper use. The Certification takes about 30 minutes and includes video tutorials, written lessons, and quizzes. It's sent as a part of your order, or get access on the Caregiver page.
STEP 5
Pay the balance. We ship your SAW.
Once your caregiver is certified, the $950 balance unlocks. Your SAW ships ready to use, no assembly required.
HSA and FSA eligible.
If your caregiver doesn't pass, we'll set up a call to assess. Switch caregivers, find a professional, or refund your deposit. Your $199 is yours until the moment we ship.
Become a SAW Certified™ Caregiver.
A caregiver can be a spouse, adult child, friend, or licensed professional.
Caregivers must be able to lift 35 pounds and be independently mobile. Anyone assisting on the stairs completes SAW certification before use. Video tutorials, written lessons, and quizzes. About 30 minutes, done online.
More about caregiver certification →Designed by a Doctor of Physical Therapy.
Designed by a Doctor of Physical Therapy who watched the same problem for 16 years. Patients ready to go home. Stuck because of stairs. SAW is a real clinical answer for stairs.
Invented by a doctor of physical therapy. 3 patents. Clinical evaluations with multiple rehab hospitals.
PTs recommend SAW for patients facing stairs at home. If yours did, this is what they were talking about.
Questions you might have after surgery.
For general product, fit, and warranty questions, see the full FAQ.
For meniscus repair, surgeons usually restrict full weight-bearing on the bad leg for 2 to 6 weeks. For a meniscectomy, you can typically do stairs with assistance within the first 1 to 2 weeks. Either way, the staircase at home is what holds up your discharge plan. SAW lets you sit between every step and keeps weight off the bad leg the entire way.
Yes, with assistance. Most surgeons clear stairs once you can stand briefly on the operated leg with a stable knee. The standard advice is “good leg up, bad leg down” using a handrail and a caregiver. SAW gives you a seat between every step so the new knee does less work per stair, not more.
It depends on the procedure and your surgeon's weight-bearing clearance. For knee replacement, most patients are doing stairs with assistance within 1 to 2 weeks. For meniscus repair, 2 to 6 weeks. For ACL reconstruction, 4 to 6 weeks. SAW lets you start as soon as your surgeon clears you, instead of waiting until you can do stairs unassisted.
Yes, with restrictions on bending, twisting, and lifting. Most spine surgeons clear stairs early in recovery. SAW is operated upright. You sit straight, stand straight, step straight. The Back Rest keeps you from sliding backward. A caregiver maintains your alignment.
Yes. SAW is built around sitting between every step. The good leg does the stepping. The seat carries your weight in between. The bad leg never has to bear weight on a stair itself. The qualification quiz confirms whether you meet the strength and balance criteria.
Yes. A caregiver may be a relative, partner, friend, neighbor, or licensed professional. Anyone who will assist on the stairs completes the SAW certification before use. Many post-surgical patients use a spouse or adult child as the caregiver. Others use a professional home health aide. Both work, both certify.
Most post-surgical patients use SAW heavily for 4 to 12 weeks, then taper as their stair strength returns. Some keep it for the next surgery, a future fall, or a parent who needs it. Others sell or hand it off to a family member. SAW is yours once you purchase it.
Recover at home. Not in a facility.
Doctor appointments. Your follow-up. Your kids' games. Your front porch. Your bed. Your kitchen. Your shower. Your first floor and your second floor. SAW ships to your door for $1,149. No installation. No prescription. Use the home you already have.