title: The rate of instrument breakage during orthopaedic procedures.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, Princess Royal Hospital, Lewes Road, Haywards Heath, UK, RH16 4EX.
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Molloy
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Solan
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sutton
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Ricketts
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004868:Equipment Failure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019637:Orthopedic Procedures; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013525:Surgical Instruments