BACKGROUND Overlooked injuries and delayed diagnoses are still common problems in the treatment of polytrauma patients. Therefore, ongoing documentation describing the incidence rates of missed injuries, clinically significant missed injuries, contributing factors and outcome is necessary to improve the quality of trauma care. This review summarizes the available literature on missed injuries, ...

From a series of 825 consecutive admissions with a hip fracture there were 16 cases in which the diagnosis was not made when the patient was initially seen in hospital. The reason for the delay in diagnosis was failure to correctly interpret X-rays in 10 cases and failure to X-ray the hip in three cases. The fracture was radiologically invisible in only three patients. Fifteen of the fractures ...

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...

As Dr Draper points out in her letter,1 NHS Direct is a useful resource for women, however many turn to their general practitioner, practice nurse or local sexual health clinic for help when a pill is forgotten. Therefore ‘keeping up to date’ with regard to ‘missed pill’ information is not only important to help advise these women but is also very relevant, and should be included in the verbal ...