We sought to evaluate the impact of a dedicated weekly ortho-plastics operating list on our ability to provide definitive soft tissue cover of open lower limb fractures within 72 hours.

We reviewed all open lower limb fractures at our centre before and after the introduction of an ortho-plastics list to determine whether definitive soft tissue coverage was achieved within 72 hours.

There were 23 open lower limb fractures at our centre in 2012 before the introduction of the ortho-plastics operating list of which only 7 (30%) had definitive soft tissue coverage within 72 hours. We hypothesised that the main reason for this was not patient or injury related factors but rather the logistical difficulties of coordinating theatre time on a routine trauma list with senior orthopaedic and plastic surgeon availability. To test this hypothesis we re-audited our time to soft tissue cover six months after the introduction of the ortho-plastics list and 70% of cases achieved coverage within 72 hours.

Achieving definitive soft tissue coverage of open lower limb fractures within 72 hours of injury is a challenge. A dedicated weekly ortho-plastics operating list significantly improves our ability to deliver this service.