The principles of managing open fractures.

Any fracture of a bone which communicates with the outside environment via a wound in the skin is classified as an open fracture. This may be from penetration by sharp objects from the exterior, laceration caused by the fracture fragments, or shearing forces that tear or de-glove soft tissue from a limb. These injuries vary in mechanism and severity, ranging from a broken finger caught in a bulkhead door to a catastrophic lower limb fracture suffered from an improvised explosive device (IED). We address the management principles that can be applied to all open fractures regardless of cause.