Lessons From the Pandemic for Hand Surgery in Wales.

Aims In March 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 virus a global pandemic. The United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) was placed under unprecedented pressure and hospitals were forced to adapt their working practices to continue offering world-leading healthcare. This project aims to highlight the lessons learnt within hand surgical departments throughout Wales.

Improving waiting times in the orthopaedic outpatient clinic.

Reducing waiting times for patients is a worthy goal for all healthcare professionals. The means and ability to carry out nerve conduction studies in the hand outpatient clinic has the potential to reduce waiting times between appointments for patients with upper limb neural compression. We assessed the pathway of patients presenting with upper limb neural compression in the Aneurin Bevan Trust.

A simple technique for intra-operative radiation protection in trauma and orthopaedic procedures.

With the number of orthopaedic surgical techniques using intra-operative radiological imaging, the need for effective methods of radiation protection is increasingly important. We describe a sterile, portable, easy to assemble method of providing adequate protection. This radiation protection shield is cost effective and can potentially reduce the risk of contamination and operating time.

Total hip replacement infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A case report with review of literature.

Mycobacterium Tuberculosis infection of a total joint prosthesis in patients with previous pulmonary or osteoarticular tuberculosis is well recorded in literature. We describe the case of a 59-year-old woman with tuberculous infection complicating a total hip arthroplasty 15 months after surgery for osteoarthritis. The patient had no prior history of exposure to tuberculosis and no evidence of pulmonary or osteoarticular tuberculosis.