Trauma Surgery Principles
A 28-year-old motorcyclist is brought to the trauma bay following a high-speed collision. He has a Gustilo IIIB open tibial shaft fracture with severe soft tissue injury and contamination. As part of damage control orthopaedics, the trauma surgeon applies a temporary external fixator using 6mm Schanz pins. The plan is to convert to definitive intramedullary nailing once soft tissue envelope has recovered. Regarding external fixation principles:
Mark each as TRUE or FALSE
Bicortical pin purchase increases external fixator construct stiffness by 2-3 times compared to unic...
The optimal timing for conversion from temporary external fixator to definitive intramedullary nail ...
Pin diameter should not exceed one-third of the bone diameter to avoid creating a stress riser that ...
Pre-drilling before pin insertion is optional and primarily serves to reduce insertion time rather t...
The "near-far-far-near" pin configuration provides superior frame stability by maximizing pin spread...
Answer the questions to see explanations
Click T (True) or F (False) for each option