The Hyperbook is an evidence-based resource for education in foot and ankle surgery. It’s mainly aimed at UK orthopaedic trainees, although other professionals and the public have told us they find it helpful.
Our main goals are:
- to provide reference material for orthopaedic and other trainees in foot and ankle surgery
- to explain principles and concepts clearly
- to make it clear why we say what we do
- to promote evidence-based practice
In foot and ankle surgery, as in many areas of orthopaedics, the evidence base is of variable quality. There are relatively few randomised controlled trials or other high-quality evidence. Nevertheless, in certain areas evidence-based recommendations can be made with reasonable confidence, although these are often different from common practice. In other areas the evidence is eqivocal or absent. In these situations we aim to make it clear when several options would be justifiable, although we often make recommendations. All opinions are those of the authors - feel free to disagree. Better still, help us revise it!
The main sections of the Hyperbook are reached through the drop-down menus along the top. Within each section a further menu in the left margin will lead you to individual pages.
The Hyperbook is always a work in progress. We try to keep it up to date, but it has to be fitted into the authors' spare time. Each page carries a record of the last time it was checked against the evidence and (where different) when it was last significantly updated.
The Hyperbook is produced by the East Lancashire Foot Service team. Several members of the team have written sections, as have some of our trainees. The Diabetic Foot Team have also contributed. Major writing contributions are acknowledged; where there is no named author, Jim Barrie wrote most of it.
The Hyperbook is free. Like most freeware, that includes accepting a few errors and bugs! You are welcome to use material from it for presentations or journal clubs, provided you acknowledge us as the source.
The Hyperblog is for discussion of the Hyperbook content and opinions. It also supports the North-West of England higher orthopaedic training programme in foot and ankle surgery.