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Objective To minimize the occurrence of missed injuries, the tertiary evaluation was introduced consisting of reassessment of the patient, 24 hours after admission, with: complete history, physical examination, review of exams and diagnostic testing if necessary. Methods Observational study evaluating trauma patients admitted to a teaching hospital in São Paulo, according to a protocol for tertiary evaluation. Results Between February and May 2012, for 12 weeks, 182 patients were submitted to tertiary evaluation, 100 (55%) polytraumatized and 82 (45%) were victims of low-energy trauma. Neglected lesions were observed in 21 (11.5%) patients, who had 28 missed injuries. Of these 28 lesions, seven (25%) required surgical treatment. Conclusion Strategies including formal tertiary evaluation, the protocol applied for assessing trauma victims, seem to be beneficial in these patients, regardless of the mechanism of trauma. The method is easily applied, effective and has low cost in identifying missed injuries in the victims of trauma.

Objective The purpose of this study was to compare different positions of plates in lateral malleolar Danis-Weber B fractures on synthetic bone: a lateral plate and a posterior antiglide plate. Methods Short oblique fractures of distal fibula at the level of the syndesmosys were simulated with a fibular osteotomy in sixteen synthetic fibula bones (Synbone®). Eight fractures were fixed with lateral plating associated with an independent lag screw, and the other eight were fixed with posterior antiglide plating with a lag screw through the plate. A strain gage was installed at the center of each plate at the osteotomy site. Supination and external rotation forces were applied to each of the two groups at the bend. Results The lateral position plate group suffered more deformity in response to supination forces compared to the group with the posterior antiglide plate, but this result was not statistically significant. In the tests with external rotation forces, the posterior antiglide plating group had significantly higher resistance (p < 0.05). Conclusion When subjected to external rotation forces, osteosynthesis with posterior antiglide plate models simulating type B fractures of the lateral malleolus of the ankle is more resistant than that of the neutralization plate.

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