• Matilda Fr Powell-Bowns and John F Keating.
• Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. Electronic address: tillspb@hotmail.co.uk.
• Injury. 2024 Nov 1; 55 Suppl 6: 111604111604.

AbstractThe timely and effective management of open fractures continues to be a challenge in modern orthopaedic practice. Lower limb high energy fractures with complex soft tissue injuries require multi-disciplinary care to achieve the best results. Despite an extensive published literature on open fractures, the timing of debridement and the most appropriate personnel to perform it continue to be a source of debate. National guidelines on the topic are few but they suggest immediate debridement for open fractures with highly contaminated wounds and debridement within 12 to 24 h is considered desirable for less contaminated wounds. There is actually limited evidence linking timing of debridement to infection risk but the largest studies recently published do indicate a link between delay to debridement and increasing infection risk. Most studies on management are based on a clinical model where the initial debridement and fixation are performed by an orthopaedic surgeon and if required delayed coverage and closure is subsequently carried out by a plastic surgeon. More recently, studies have proposed an alternative approach, with initial debridement and temporary fixation followed within 48 h with a further debridement, definitive fixation and flap cover with a combined orthoplastic team. Reported results have been favourable. This is a significant change in management and there are limited data at present to determine if this approach will improve results in the most complex open fractures.Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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