The impact on time between injury and semi-acute surgery for hand fractures after virtual fracture clinic implementation.
retrospective_cohort · Level III
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39169756.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1177/17531934241268976 and PMC identifier 11827275.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The aim of this before-and-after study was to evaluate the implementation of a virtual fracture clinic (VFC) on the time between injury and surgery in patients presenting with a phalangeal or metacarpal fracture and in need of semi-acute surgical treatment. Between 1 January and 30 September 2018 (pre-VFC) and in the same period in 2022 (VFC), 101 and 113 patients were included, respectively. Before VCF implementation, the time between injury and surgery was 8.9 days (95% confidence interval [CI]: 8.1 to 9.6), while after VCF implementation it was 7.6 days (95% CI: 7.0 to 8.3). In 2018, 7% of operations were unacceptably delayed beyond 14 days from injury, which was reduced to 5% in 2022, despite patient-presentation delays of up to 10 days. VFC implementation was associated with a reduction in time until semi-acute surgery for phalangeal or metacarpal fractures and improved the quality of semi-acute surgery planning.<b>Level of evidence:</b> Level III.
Medical subject headings
- Fractures, Bone
- Time-to-Treatment
- Metacarpal Bones
- Finger Phalanges
- Hand Injuries
Anatomy
- hand