Wide-Awake Hand Trauma Surgery: Designing Strategies to Optimise Patient Experience

The regional hand trauma service in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, underwent significant reorganisation early in the COVID-19 pandemic, with a shift from predominantly general anaesthesia (GA) procedures to the adoption of a Wide-Awake Local Anaesthetic No Tourniquet (WALANT) technique. We implemented strategies targeted towards optimising patient experience, largely applicable to most healthcare settings.

Four domains were explored: (i) compliance in timing to nationally agreed treatment guidelines, (ii) the role of patient information leaflets, (iii) the introduction of a post-operative analgesia protocol, and (iv) broadly evaluating the environmental impact following the implementation of a same-day 'see and treat' service.

Following reorganisation to a predominantly WALANT service, we observed an increase in compliance with nationally agreed standards for the treatment of common hand injuries. Patient education and peri-operative counselling reduced anxiety, whereas post-operative pain was better managed with the introduction of an analgesic protocol. Using a travel carbon calculator, it can be inferred that there are significant reductions in carbon emissions generated when patients are evaluated and treated on the same day as their clinical presentation.

It is widely acknowledged that WALANT benefits patients and the healthcare system. We contemplated whether further incremental changes in clinical practice could further improve patient experience. Given our findings, we advocate a multi-modal approach with a greater focus on patient outcomes (trials are currently underway, e.g., WAFER) supplemented by universally accepted validated patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).