Reducing missed orthopedic injuries in the ER

Reducing missed orthopedic injuries in the ER.

Commonly missed orthopaedic injuries.

CROSSING the road is safe enough-but only for those who always take care. The child who relaxes his vigilance is heading for disaster. The Casualty Officer is in a like condition. Most bone injuries are obvious even to the patient and are easily confirmed by the doctor; but without constant care errors are inevitable and, as with crossing the road, the penalty is high. The object of this short ...

Commonly missed peritalar injuries.

Because of the effect on hindfoot kinematics, missed or delayed diagnosis of peritalar injuries often results in impairment. The seemingly innocuous nature of these injuries, subtle radiographic findings, and low incidence limit familiarity, thereby increasing the likelihood of misdiagnosis. Because of delay in diagnosis, salvage arthrodesis may be necessary to restore function to the extremity...

Missed tendon injuries.

The timing of the repair of divided tendons may be debated but in most cases a clearly divided tendon should be repaired primarily and, whether or not primary repair is indicated, 'the ideal treatment programme is immediate surgery performed by an experienced surgeon' (McGrouther et al., 1990). If a tendon injury is missed, deformity may occur, the patient may need further surgical procedures, ...

Missed injuries in the acutely traumatised hand.

A prospective study of 500 consecutive patients referred from accident and emergency departments in Northern Ireland with acute hand injuries was performed to assess the incidence of missed injuries. An injury was 'missed' if a patient was receiving inappropriate treatment or returned due to persistent symptoms despite being examined, treated and discharged. There were 16 (3.2%) missed injuries...