A Retrospective Review of Iatrogenic Skin and Soft Tissue Injuries

Background Even though the quality of medical and surgical care has improved remarkablyover time, iatrogenic injuries that require surgical treatment including injuries caused by castand elastic bandage pressure, extravasation, and dopamine-induced ischemia still frequentlyoccur. The goal of this study was to estimate the incidence and analyze the distribution ofiatrogenic injuries referred to our department.Methods A retrospective clinical review was performed from April 2006 to November 2010. Intotal, 196 patients (116 females and 80 males) were referred to the plastic surgery departmentfor the treatment of iatrogenic injuries. We analyzed the types and anatomic locations ofiatrogenic complications, along with therapeutic results.Results An extravasation injury (65 cases, 37.4%) was the most common iatrogeniccomplication in our study sample, followed by splint-induced skin ulceration, dopamineinducednecrosis, prefabricated pneumatic walking brace-related wounds and elasticbandage-induced wounds. Among these, prefabricated pneumatic walking brace-relatedcomplication incidence increased the most during the 5-year study period.Conclusions The awareness of the very common iatrogenic complications and its causes mayallow physicians to reduce their occurrence and allow for earlier detection and referral to aplastic surgeon. We believe this is the first study to analyze iatrogenic complications referredto a plastic surgery department in a hospital unit.