An earthquake in 2018 resulted in irreparable damage to the Port of Spain General Hospital, Trinidad and Tobago, and severely affected orthopaedic services. This study investigates the rate and reasons for cancellation on the day of surgery of orthopaedic cases during the post-earthquake period. We prospectively collected data on all cases scheduled to undergo surgery during the study period. Information was gathered on patient demographics, the number and reasons for cancellation. Data were analysed using Analyse-it for Microsoft Excel 5.40 (Analyse-it Software Ltd). Our results show that 43 patients were cancelled, resulting in a 44.3% cancellation rate. Patients who had their surgery cancelled were older, with a higher American Society of Anesthesiologists class compared with patients whose surgery was not cancelled. Hospital-related factors were found to be responsible for the majority of cancellations. Placed in context, our findings suggest that limited operating time due to the earthquake-induced hospital damage was the principal reason for the high rate of surgery cancellations.

IntroductionWomen are underrepresented in orthopaedics. Recent studies have shown that women comprise only a very small proportion of all practising orthopaedic surgeons in the United States. One theory that seeks to explain this disparity is the lack of female mentors in orthopaedic surgery. Women are particularly influenced by same-sex mentors, and the paucity of mentors sets up a negative feedback loop that further reduces applications to residency programs. Presentation of scholarly work at conferences increases the visibility of women and represents important opportunities to encourage young female doctors to the speciality. The annual meeting of The Caribbean Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (TCOS) is a forum that allows regional exposure to young doctors. In the present work, we aim to analyse the gender diversity among presenters at the annual TCOS meetings. MethodsA retrospective analysis of the final programs of TCOS meetings over five years was conducted to determine the sex of the presenter, their roles, and topics. The first author listed on the program was taken as the presenter unless it was otherwise stated. Gender was determined using conventional naming taxonomy. Presenters were classified as podium presenters or moderators and presentations as clinical or non-clinical. We subdivided clinical presentations into seven subspecialty areas. A Chi-squared test was used to calculate differences between groups, with a p-value of < 0.05 representing significance. Statistical tests were performed using Analyse-it for Microsoft Excel 5.40 (Analyse-it Software Ltd). ResultsThere was a total of 195 podium presentations over the study period. During this time, there was a steady increase in the number of presentations by women, with a mean value of 19.5%. Compared with men, women presented fewer clinical papers (52.6%vs 73.9%, p=0.037), presented on more general topics (63.2% vs 31.2%, p=0.007) and were less likely to moderate a session (2.7% vs 97.3%, p=0.014). Presentations by female residents were marginally higher than the mean rate for women overall and were representative of the gender distribution in the resident pool. ConclusionsThere are significantly fewer presentations by women than men at the annual TCOS meetings. Encouragingly, however, there is a positive trend towards greater female presentations over the study period. Our results show that despite being underrepresented, more women are presenting at orthopaedic conferences in the Caribbean than in the United States or England.

The prevalence of osteoporotic acetabular fractures and fracture-dislocations of the hip is increasing worldwide. These injuries are difficult to treat, and outcomes using traditional methods of osteosynthesis have been generally disappointing. Currently, there is debate about the management strategies with no widely held consensus on which technique is best. Studies from tertiary centers in North America and Europe have reported excellent results using the "combined hip procedure" which merges osteosynthesis and acute hip arthroplasty to treat these challenging fractures. As our population ages, these injuries are likely to occur more commonly in the developing world. We describe a case of an 80-year-old man who sustained a posterior fracture-dislocation of his hip and underwent successful treatment using the combined hip procedure in a low-resource setting.