Fractures in Their Present Setting.

Fracture Services A GREAT step forward was taken when fractures came to be regarded as the responsibility of orthopaedic surgeons, who set up fracture clinics and services throughout the country. Most fractures are closed and affect only one part of the body. The progress of the patient from arrival at hospital to final discharge is usually a leisurely one through the admission room, X-ray department, perhaps a ward and an operating theatre, the plaster room, then on to the fracture clinic, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, suitable work or retraining and finally back, if not to his customary place in society, at least to a useful one. Throughout this progress the need is for careful supervision rather than active or vigorous treatment. The process of establishing this orderly and carefully managed train of events so greatly improved the quality of results after fractures that it can fairly be regarded as a revolution, albeit a largely bloodless one. There is now another Spine 26