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The Reuse of Circular External Fixator Components: An Assessment of Safety and Potential Savings
Purpose: Cost saving strategies are important especially in a resource constrained environment. One such strategy well supported in literature is the reuse of temporary monolateral external fixator components, a strategy we utilize at our institution. The aim of the study was to determine the safety...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Division of General Surgery
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613214414471168 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Chironga, Kudzai |
| author2 | Laubscher, Maritz |
| author_browse | Chironga, Kudzai Laubscher, Maritz |
| author_facet | Laubscher, Maritz Chironga, Kudzai |
| author_sort | Chironga, Kudzai |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Purpose: Cost saving strategies are important especially in a resource constrained environment. One such strategy well supported in literature is the reuse of temporary monolateral external fixator components, a strategy we utilize at our institution. The aim of the study was to determine the safety and cost saving associated with the reuse of definitive circular external fixator components in a resource constrained environment. Method: We performed a retrospective review of all adult patients who were treated with either new or reused circular external fixators from a single manufacturer between January and December 2017. Reused circular external fixator components, excluding half pins and wires, were subjected to an in-house reprocessing protocol. Cost savings were calculated as the difference between the price of a completely new frame and the amount invoiced for new components only in a reused frame. Results: 33 patients were included in the study with an average age of 31.9 years. The mean duration of treatment with a circular external fixator was 5.8 months. No mechanical failure events were recorded during the study period. Our institution saved approximately 52% (R717 503.89) and 63 % (R136 568.19) of expected total cost for hexapod and Ilizarov frames respectively. Conclusion: The strategy of reusing circular external fixator components is unconventional and this study was conducted to evaluate the safety and potential savings in a resource constrained environment. We demonstrated this practice to be reasonably safe and to result in significant cost savings which might be relevant in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37090 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:34.479Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | Division of General Surgery |
| publisherStr | Division of General Surgery |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37090 The Reuse of Circular External Fixator Components: An Assessment of Safety and Potential Savings Chironga, Kudzai Laubscher, Maritz Orthopaedic Surgery Purpose: Cost saving strategies are important especially in a resource constrained environment. One such strategy well supported in literature is the reuse of temporary monolateral external fixator components, a strategy we utilize at our institution. The aim of the study was to determine the safety and cost saving associated with the reuse of definitive circular external fixator components in a resource constrained environment. Method: We performed a retrospective review of all adult patients who were treated with either new or reused circular external fixators from a single manufacturer between January and December 2017. Reused circular external fixator components, excluding half pins and wires, were subjected to an in-house reprocessing protocol. Cost savings were calculated as the difference between the price of a completely new frame and the amount invoiced for new components only in a reused frame. Results: 33 patients were included in the study with an average age of 31.9 years. The mean duration of treatment with a circular external fixator was 5.8 months. No mechanical failure events were recorded during the study period. Our institution saved approximately 52% (R717 503.89) and 63 % (R136 568.19) of expected total cost for hexapod and Ilizarov frames respectively. Conclusion: The strategy of reusing circular external fixator components is unconventional and this study was conducted to evaluate the safety and potential savings in a resource constrained environment. We demonstrated this practice to be reasonably safe and to result in significant cost savings which might be relevant in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). 2023-03-01T12:40:05Z 2023-03-01T12:40:05Z 2022 2023-02-20T12:24:44Z Master Thesis Masters MMed http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37090 eng application/pdf Division of General Surgery Faculty of Health Sciences |
| spellingShingle | Orthopaedic Surgery Chironga, Kudzai The Reuse of Circular External Fixator Components: An Assessment of Safety and Potential Savings |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The Reuse of Circular External Fixator Components: An Assessment of Safety and Potential Savings |
| title_full | The Reuse of Circular External Fixator Components: An Assessment of Safety and Potential Savings |
| title_fullStr | The Reuse of Circular External Fixator Components: An Assessment of Safety and Potential Savings |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Reuse of Circular External Fixator Components: An Assessment of Safety and Potential Savings |
| title_short | The Reuse of Circular External Fixator Components: An Assessment of Safety and Potential Savings |
| title_sort | reuse of circular external fixator components an assessment of safety and potential savings |
| topic | Orthopaedic Surgery |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37090 |
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