Circular frames treatment for limb reconstruction involves repeated follow up visits, and a substantial number of these appointments are for pin site review only, and incur a significant cost to the NHS. We advocate ‘Telemedicine’ as a logistically and economically viable option for routine post-operative review of pin-sites. The senior author performs fifty to sixty frame circular frame treatments in adults for trauma every year. For the past 12 months, we have been encouraging our frame patients to take photographs of their pin-sites when they do their weekly dressing changes. This is done with digital cameras by the patients themselves, and the images are then emailed to the senior author on his work email address, and get replied to by the next day. If the images are a cause for concern, further steps are initiated (Images 1 and 2 demonstrate pin-sites before and after a course of antibiotics, started because the first image was a cause for concern). This arrangement is for pin-site reviews only. This method has been used for the post-op pin site review of five patients with circular frames.Statement of purpose
Methods and results
