Evidence-based nursing care of a patient treated with the Ilizarov method for lower limb length inequality

Aim. Presentation of selected elements of nursing care of a patient with lower limb length inequality treated with the Ilizarov method.

Material and methods. A patient after surgical placement of an external fixator is presented in this work. An individual case study method was used in this work, whereas the research techniques were: interview, nursing observations, measurements, analysis of nursing records. The research tools included e.g. a guide to collecting patient data and numeric rating scale (NRS) for pain assessment. Nursing diagnoses were made in a traditional way.

Results. The study presents nursing interventions based on EBN for 4 diagnoses, e.g.: post-operative wound pain associated with skin incision and deep tissue damage; low mood and sadness due to the perspective of long-term treatment and accompanying disability. Effective improvement of the patient’s health is achieved by implementing nursing care based on scientific evidence.

Conclusions. Important aspects of the nursing care of a patient with Ilizarov apparatus include the awareness and knowledge of nursing and clinical problems resulting from skin, soft tissue and bone damage caused by the external fixator. A small number of publications in this field is a motivator to present the topic