A'Court Jamie, Yassa Rafik, Charalambous Charalambos P
Department of Orthopaedics, Blackpool Victoria Hospital, Blackpool, UK.
Department of Orthopaedics, Blackpool Victoria Hospital, Blackpool, UK; School of Medicine, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK.
Injury. 2017 Jul;48(7):1405-1407. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2017.04.037. Epub 2017 Apr 19.
Orthopaedic casts have been used to treat musculoskeletal conditions for hundreds of years and are still a fundamental component of treating a variety of disorders. As surgical techniques have advanced the frequency of use of orthopaedic casts has declined. With Orthopaedics being is one of the most litigious specialties in medicine we sough to evaluate how this related to casting in Orthopaedics and how we could learn from past mistakes. We analysed litigation claims related to Orthopaedic casts from 1995 to 2010 in which the claims were closed. 43 cases were related to orthopaedic casts. The total costs of these claims were over £2.3 million with an average total cost of £48,500 per claim. The most common cause for claim was harm caused when a cast was applied too tight and secondly from removing the cast. This is the first study to evaluate litigation claims related to Orthopaedic casts and highlights potential complications that if avoided will certainly improve the care of the patients and avoid unnecessary litigation.
骨科石膏用于治疗肌肉骨骼疾病已有数百年历史，至今仍是治疗多种病症的基本组成部分。随着外科技术的进步，骨科石膏的使用频率有所下降。由于骨科是医学中诉讼最多的专科之一，我们试图评估这与骨科石膏使用的关系，以及我们如何从过去的错误中吸取教训。我们分析了1995年至2010年已结案的与骨科石膏相关的诉讼索赔。有43起案件与骨科石膏有关。这些索赔的总成本超过230万英镑，平均每项索赔总成本为48,500英镑。索赔的最常见原因是石膏打得过紧造成的伤害，其次是拆除石膏。这是第一项评估与骨科石膏相关的诉讼索赔的研究，突出了一些潜在并发症，如果避免这些并发症，肯定会改善对患者的护理并避免不必要的诉讼。
