Open fracture management: Critical issues

Open fractures are commonly encountered injuries worldwide and are often complicated by infection. Many present significant treatment challenges, where surgeons’ early decision-making can affect long-term outcomes. While evidence-based recommendations exist to guide some of these decisions, several treatment areas continue to be controversial. This supplement seeks to outline critical treatment elements for open fractures, including antibiotic administration, surgical timing, bone defect management, and soft-tissue coverage as well as management of fracture-related infections. The expectation is that a better understanding of these issues will help improve the future care of these potentially disabling injuries.