Missed injuries in an orthopaedic department

Lodox/Statscan facilitates the early detection of commonly overlooked extracranial injuries in patients with traumatic brain injury

“…Consequently, it was reported that 10-39.6% of extremity injuries were missed in the ED and diagnosed later in the ward, intensive care unit (ICU), or even in outpatient departments [7][8][9]. Apart from the possible increased risk of fat embolism syndrome and compartment syndrome, there are also possible legal concerns if a significant long bone fracture is missed [10][11][12][13]. Therefore, clinicians face a dilemma regarding the evaluation of patients with diminished level of consciousness in the ED.…”

Forensic considerations of missed diagnoses in trauma deaths

“…2 Reported rates of unrecognized injuries in trauma patients vary from 2% to 50%. [3][4][5][6] An evaluation of early missed injuries has reported the incidence as 65%. According to this study of 206 patients, there were clinically important missed injuries in 30 patients (15%) with complications in 11 patients of whom 2 died.…”

Reducing Diagnostic Errors in Musculoskeletal Trauma by Reviewing Non-Admission Orthopaedic Referrals in the Next-Day Trauma Meeting

“…Morton 5 noted 17.2% incorrect diagnoses and 12% incorrectly treated patients in a cohort of 250 patients. Juhl et al 6 noticed a 2.2% missed injury rate in 783 patients, Thomas et al 7 found a 2.8% error rate, while Vincent et al 8 found as high as 35% overall error rate. Our series revealed 12.6% false positive and 4% false negative rates.…”