Description
In this conference presentation, Tom Quick, a Nerve Surgeon, and Rob Poulter, an Orthopedic Hand Surgeon, introduce the new BOAST Guidelines aimed at improving the management of nerve injuries in trauma cases. They emphasize the collaborative effort between orthopedic and plastic surgeons to update the existing guidelines, which are nearly a decade old and have not been widely adopted. The presenters discuss the common challenges faced by orthopedic surgeons in addressing nerve injuries and the prevailing sense of fatalism surrounding them. They advocate for timely and specialized treatment, underlining the necessity of early referrals to specialized centers to enhance patient outcomes.
Quick and Poulter introduce a structured approach to nerve injury management that includes establishing regional nerve-injury networks, which will serve as centralized hubs of expertise. They stress the importance of having a single point of contact within these networks for consistent access to specialist advice. The presentation concludes with a call to action for collaboration among medical professionals to foster better patient care and discussions regarding nerve injuries, ultimately seeking to improve awareness and urgency in assessment and treatment practices.