The purpose of the study was to retrospectively assess the patients treated to date with the vac ulta system using a technique of antibiotic instillation.

The vac ulta system is licensed for use with anti-septic instillation fluid but we have now treated a number of patients with antibiotic instillation under the guidance of the microbiology department. All patients being treated with the vac ulta system were included in the study. There were no exclusions. Pathology treated, infecting organism, antibiotic used and length of treatment were all recorded. Any antibiotic related complications were noted. Treatment was judged successful with resolution of presenting symptoms, normalization of inflammatory markers and three negative foam cultures.

There were 21 patients included in the study. There were 13 male and 8 female patients. Length of treatment ranged from 1 week to 10 weeks with a mean of 4.2 weeks. Follow up ranged from 1 month to 42 months with a mean follow up of 17.9 months

The most common pathogen was Staph. Aureus(11 cases). Enterobacter, ESBL, Strep. Milleri, MRSA and Citrobacter were also treated. Antibiotics instilled included flucloxacillin, meropenem, gentamicin, vancomycin, meropenem and teicoplanin. There were no antibiotic reactions/allergies. Pathologies treated included osteomyelitis, two stage amputations for infection, infected non-union and infected metalwork. Infection recurred in 2 of 21 patients (10%), with one recurring at 18 months and one at 2 years.

The 90% treatment success rate is highly encouraging in this notoriously difficult group of patients to treat. In this series vac instill was an effective treatment of infection and allows antibiotic treatment to be targeted to the infected tissues. There were no adverse reactions seen.

Larger series with longer follow up are no needed but we believe this technique is safe, successful and easily administered can be cautiously adopted on a wider basis.

The aim of the study is to evaluate how patients over 65 years of age cope with the Ilizarov method of treatment, compared with patients a decade younger.

Two age groups were selected, 50–65 years versus 65 years and over. 20 consecutive patients were recruited for each group. SF36 scores were completed pre-operatively, at 6 weeks post op and 6 weeks post frame removal. 41 patients were recruited in total.

Seven patients were lost to follow up – 2 died, 2 became too ill to continue with treatment, 3 did not complete the SF36. This left 34 patients.

T test was used to analyse the results.

Both age groups showed an equal and statistically significant drop in SF36 scores whilst the Ilizarov frame was on (p<0.01 for each group).

After frame removal, SF36 in the >65 group was not significantly different to pre-operative values.

In the younger group, SF36 after frame removal was still significantly lower than pre-operative values (p<0.01).

Age makes no difference in how patients cope with the ilizarov frame during treatment. Older patients have low pre-injury function levels, but appear to return to this level quickly after frame removal. Younger patients do not recover pre-injury function in 6 weeks after completion of treatment.

Ilizarov frame removal often occurs in the outpatient setting, and previous data has shown it can be a painful experience. Frames with a total of four or more olive wires or half-pins in combination yielded increased pain scores at frame removal.

Sublingual fentanyl provides rapid onset, short acting analgesia for painful procedures such as dressing changes in burns patients. We hypothesised that administration of sublingual fentanyl, prior to frame removal would improve patients' pain scores.

Twenty-one patients were given 100 mcg sublingual fentanyl prior to frame removal. Their pain scores were documented on an 11-point (0–10) numeric visual scale before, immediately after, 15 and 30 minutes after frame removal, and the following day. The same nurse specialist removed all the frames. Nitrous oxide was available for patients if they needed further analgesia.

The majority of frames were removed from tibia. The average patient age was 40.8 years. Each frame had a median of 9 wires (range 2–17), and 4 olives (2–8). Eight frames had half pins (range 1–4, median 2). Fourteen patients used nitrous oxide in addition to fentanyl.

Overall, the average pain score was 3.1. This peaked at 7.5 immediately after frame removal, but 15 minutes following removal the average was 2.5. Patients who had supplementary nitrous oxide had higher pain scores throughout (though not beforehand), although these differences were not statistically significant.

Four patients (19%) reported adverse effects following administration, but none required medical intervention.

Patients' pain scores averaged 2.52 within 15 minutes of removal, compared with 5.25 from our previous review. This suggests that fentanyl may be beneficial in frame removal, but our sample size was small, and more research is needed in this area.