Timing is key in orthopedic trauma surgery

Timing of prolonged orthopedic surgery may be key in treating trauma patients, German researchers suggest.

In an article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, researchers suggests trauma patients who have several orthopedic injuries and are considered to be in unstable condition should only have a few hours of surgery when first arriving at a hospital.

If you limit the amount of time in the operating room to less than three hours, patients appear to do better, study lead author Dr. Hans-Christoph Pape of the University of Aachen in Germany said in a statement. If a patient has life-threatening injuries for example, more than three fractures and perhaps a lacerated liver, it is often too dangerous to do all the surgery right away.

Pape and his colleagues analyzed data from several trauma registries in Germany and compared patient outcomes in about 21,000 trauma patients with the amount of hours each patient had spent in the operating room.