Figure 1.

Open fracture rate, severity, and mechanistic cause statistics. Open fracture rates and statistics, grouped by anatomical site, from a recent report by Court-Brown et al.¹ The information represents a collection of 2386 open fracture cases recorded at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh between 1995 and 2009. The data suggest the majority of open fracture cases occurred on the distant extremities (A). The most severe open fractures (GA Type III) occurred on the lower extremities, especially the lower legs and feet (B). The distant extremities were characterized by major open fracture mechanisms, which have been grouped into four categories for easier visualization (C). To see this illustration in color, the reader is referred to the web version of this article at www.liebertpub.com/wound