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The Author studied 700 patients who have suffered orthopedic trauma and were treated as in-patients at Divisão Hospital de Ortopedia e Traumatologia in 1969. After being discharged from the unit all of them were transferred to the outpatient department. It was found out that a great deal of those patients did not follow the doctors' orders, and did not return as requested, even those who were in cast, or had been discharged just after bane surgery. As the present study comprises patients lacking material conrlitions to resort to private or insurance health assistance for subsequent follow up, the Author concludes that this particular attitude of disregarding the medical recommendation concerning the follow-up amounts to a problem which demands a new approach by the nursing department, especially by the public heath nurses working at the outpatient department.