Recommendations for the care of pin sites are not necessarily evidence based (Temple and Santy 2004) and this has led to confusion and contradiction in the literature regarding best practice. Day-to-day clinical decision making for the care of pin sites often takes place by the nurse at the patient’s bedside. It is therefore important to provide nurses with the best available evidence to support practice. In 2000, Birmingham University was host to a consensus conference of 54 orthopaedic nurses, which aimed to identify current best practice for pin site care to provide nurses with clinical guidelines (Lee-Smith et al 2001). Some of the evidence presented in this article is in line with these recommendations.