The economic burden of open tibia fractures: A systematic review

•Open tibia fractures are a common injury following road traffic accidents and are associated with significant costs to the healthcare system, society and patients.•This review suggests infection, non-unions and compartment increase mean initial hospital costs. Amputations were shown to be associated with lower initial hospital costs, but higher lifetime costs.•Patients’ ability to work is impacted by this injury with 40% either partially working or unable to work.•More work is required to develop standardised costing tools and economic burden studies in different settings, especially LMICs.