[Quality control and cost-benefit analysis in surgical fracture treatment]

In recent years quality assurance is gaining increasing importance in all parts of medicine. In this article, different quality control measures in the field of operative fracture treatment are reviewed and illustrated. As in most other therapeutic specialties, the most commonly used measures are sporadic quality control studies. The Documentation Center of the association for the study of internal fixation [AO] offers in addition to all its contributing clinics an extraordinary measure for a continuous control of their treatment results. So far only a few instances of cost-benefit analysis have been published. Besides direct comparison of costs of different treatment options, improved quality of life may be calculated as well, using the method of Quality-Adjusted Life Years [QALY].