This paper reports the cost of outpatient venous
thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis following 388 injuries of the lower
limb requiring immobilisation in our institution, from a total of
7408 new patients presenting between May and November 2011. Prophylaxis
was by either self-administered subcutaneous dalteparin (n = 128)
or oral dabigatran (n = 260). The mean duration of prophylaxis per
patient was 46 days (6 to 168). The total cost (pay and non-pay)
for prophylaxis with dalteparin was £107.54 and with dabigatran
was £143.99. However, five patients in the dalteparin group required
nurse administration (£23 per home visit), increasing the cost of
dalteparin to £1142.54 per patient. The annual cost of VTE prophylaxis
in a busy trauma clinic treating 12 700 new patients (2010/11), would
be
£92 526.33 in the context of an income for trauma of £1.82 million,
which represents 5.3% of the outpatient tariff. Outpatient prophylaxis in a busy trauma clinic is achievable
and affordable in the context of the clinical and financial risks
involved. Cite this article:
To assess the efficacy of linezolid in the treatment of orthopaedic related infection and the instance of adverse reactions. The management of 22 patients treated with oral linezolid for orthopaedic related infections were reviewed. Patients were selected from the hospital database using clinical coding related to orthopaedic infections and all patients were managed within a single tertiary referral centre. These included infected joint arthroplasty (10 patients), infection following fracture fixation (8 patients), septic arthritis and soft tissue infection (non trauma 4 patients). All patients were treated with oral linezolid therapy, and in each case treatment was initiated with the involvement of a microbiologist, as per trust anti-microbial policy. A diagnosis of infection was confirmed on basis of both subjective and objective markers.Aims and Objectives
Methods
