Edinburgh Orthopaedic Trauma Unit
Workload
The unit is almost unique amongst the world’s major trauma units in that it is the only trauma unit serving a population of about 800,000 people plus tertiary referrals from a population of 1.5 million. In most western countries such a population would be divided between more hospitals and the patients would be admitted to different hospitals according to the severity of their injuries.
There is however no national trauma system in the United Kingdom and the Edinburgh Orthopaedic Trauma Unit takes all patients that present regardless of the degree of injury. This has allowed us to undertake epidemiological analysis of fracture populations and to also pursue clinical outcome of research for a wide spectrum of fractures.
Currently the unit admits about 5,500 patients per year and undertakes about 5000 surgical operations. In addition approximately 40,000 out-patients are seen on an annual basis.
The unit treats approximately 1000 neck of femur fractures per year. A figure that is gradually increasing.
Approximately 50% of the workload concerns fractures in the elderly with proximal femoral fractures accounting for just under 20% of all admissions. The challenging geriatric fractures are in fact the remaining 20% as these patients tend to be fitter and more active than those who have hip fractures. Much of the units time is taken up with the complex reconstruction surgery that these patients require.
The remaining 50% of patients are younger and frequently present with severe long-bone fractures, open fractures or multiple fractures having been involved in road traffic accidents. Unlike the elderly population the priority with younger patients is to return them to work as soon as possible as failure to do this is extremely expensive. The unit is well supported by the Department of Plastic Surgery at St John’s Hospital who undertake much of the soft tissue reconstruction that is required in the management of these difficult injuries.
©Edinburgh Orthopaedic Trauma Unit 2007