862 A Retrospective Audit on Management of Ankle fracture In a District General Hospital in South east England

Abstract

Abstract Aim Ankle fractures are common injuries encountered by orthopaedic surgeons on a daily basis. Primary aim of the audit is to compare management of ankle fracture in Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital under NHS trust with the BOAST guidelines. As a secondary objective, quality of life of patients less than 60 years of age is assessed in order to review the specificity of timing of surgery as mentioned in the guidelines. Method An audit was conducted among patients who have undergone open reduction and internal fixation for ankle fracture during a period of one year in Ashford and St. Peter’s hospital. BOAST guidelines was kept as a standard to compare the management practice in the trust. Quality of life is assessed with the help of COST (Chertsey Outcome Scoring for Trauma) scoring method. Results Trust showed good compliance with the guidelines regarding documentation and reviewing patients within 6 weeks’ time. Only 45% of the patients, less than 60 years old had surgery within 24 hours. The average COST score does not show any significant difference between those who had surgery within 24 hours and after that. Conclusions To conclude, trust showed good compliance in certain aspects like documentation and reviewing patients, but the surgery was delayed up to 19 days for patients less than 60 years of age. The average COST score showed that there are no functional benefits for patients who had surgery on an early date. So, the specificity of timing in the BOAST guideline is questionable.