From British Consensus to Russian Protocol: How we justified our journey

SummaryThe care of pin sites for patients undergoing external fixation remains contentious. Our centre followed the British Consensus method (Lee-Smith et al., 2001) until a review of our antibiotic usage led us to believe we could improve our practice. Liaison with other limb reconstruction centres led us towards the Russian Protocol (Davies et al., 2005) despite the latest Cochrane report (Lethaby et al., 2008) concluding that there was insufficient evidence for any particular strategy of pin site care. This article aims to explain why we made the decision to move from ‘Britain’ to ‘Russia’.