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The rate of instrument breakage during orthopaedic procedures
M V Price1, S Molloy, M C Solan
1Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, Princess Royal Hospital, Lewes Road, Haywards Heath, UK, RH16 4EX.
Abstract:
The current study investigates instrument breakages during both emergency and elective orthopaedic surgery. Over a 2 year period a total of 7,775 procedures were performed. We found that 14 instruments were broken during 12 operative cases. Drill bits accounted for the largest proportion of breakages (11/14), and a specialist registrar was the lead surgeon in the majority (8/12) of cases. Only one case had a consultant as the lead surgeon. In seven cases the broken bit of the surgical instrument was left in the patient. Documentation of this peri-operative complication was deficient, and the patient was often not informed.