Trauma Applications

Some potential patients you see coming into the Hospital, present with limbs you would think are not worth saving due to the gross malformation or soft tissue damage. I have learnt to look beyond the actual limb until i see the initial images. Here is a patient who last year came into A/E (blue light) with a gross animal attack from home. This patient had a carbon frame applied due to the fractures around the mid-shaft to distal forearm. His arm was succesfully re-applied with some function left remaining.

(Images supplied by Hospital placement 2007).

Carbon frames are very good for the Radiographer, they are radiolucent, the only artifact to see are the Stainless steel rods, nuts and screws. They are also patient friendly they do weigh considerably less than the stainless steel ones. So any injury that requires close scrutiny on the plain film will not be masked by the frame. The down fall of carbon frames are they are thicker (10mm) than the Stainless steel ones (5mm). Eventually after ware and tare of the patients use they start to splinter, and it is not an ideal situation to replace the ring itself.