Changing landscapes for plastic surgery: the effect of the Major Trauma Network on emergency operative workload

Abstract

Results Of the 2606 trauma calls in 2013, 416 patients required surgical intervention. 29.3% of these patients (n = 122) were operated on by plastics (either as sole operating team or part of multi-specialty team). 76.2% (n = 93) involved lower limb trauma and 30.3% (n = 37) upper limb trauma. Emergency general extremity referrals increased from an average of 65/year to 484/year in the period 2011 to 2013, whilst plastics operative workload increased from an average of 53 cases/year to 407/year in the same period. This represents a more than sevenfold increase in the plastic surgery operative workload at our centre.