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. 2002 Mar 26;26(3):185–187. doi: 10.1007/s00264-002-0344-6

The rate of instrument breakage during orthopaedic procedures

M Price 1, S Molloy 1, M Solan 1, A Sutton 1, D Ricketts 1
PMCID: PMC3620883  PMID: 12073114

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.

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