Epidemiological analysis of adult malleolar injury in the Third Affiliated Hospital to Hebei Medical University from 2003 through 2012

Abstract

Objective To analyze the epidemiological features and trends of adult malleolar injury from 2003 through 2012 in our hospital.Methods The clinical data were collected of the adult patients with malleolar injury who had been treated between January 2003 and December 2012 in our hospital.The injury was characterized in terms of gender,age and fracture type of AO classification.The data from January 2003 to December 2007 were assigned into group A and those from January 2008 to December 2012 into group B.The 2 groups were compared to find out the general epidemiological characteristics and trends in the recent 10 years.Results A total of 7 742 adults with malleolar injury were collected,including 4 476 males and 3 266 females.The total male/female ratio was 1.37∶1.The adult malleolar injury predominated in an age range of 21 and 30 years(20.49％).There were 4 140 cases(53.47％) of type 44-A,2 215 ones (28.61％) of type 44-B and 1 387 ones(17.92％) of type 44-C.The male/female ratio was 1.39∶1 in group A of 3 755 patients and 1.36∶1 in group B of 3 987 patients,showing no significant difference between groups (x2 =0.215,P =0.643).The mean age of group A (39.9 ± 15.8 years) was significantly younger than that of group B (41.9 ± 16.7 years) (Z =-5.147,P =0.000).The differences in age distribution and AO fracture type distribution were statistically significant between the 2 groups(P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The peak age of adult malleolar injury was from 21 to 30 years.There were more male patients than female ones.There was an increasing trend in the mean age.The high-risk type was 44-A while types 44-B showed an increasing trend. Key words: Ankle injury; Epidemiology; Sex distribution; Age distribution