Epidemiological characterization of different types of femoral shaft fracture and their gender and age distribution

Abstract

Objective To characterize various types of femoral shaft fractures (FSFs) and their gender and age distribution.Methods Denographic data and X-ray films were collected for this epidemiological survey from the FSF patients who had been treated from 2010 through 2011 in 4 hospitals in Hebei Province.According to the AO classification,the FSFs were divided into simple ones (type 32A) and complex ones (types 32B and 32C); according to the fracture site,the FSFs were divided into proximal,middle,distal and multi-segmental ones.The gender and age distributions were compared among different types of FSF.Results Clinical data of 3,136 FSF patients were collected.The male to female ratio was 1.96∶1 and their ages averaged 33.7 ± 19.9 years.There were 2,003 cases of simple FSF and 1,133 cases of complex FSF.There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in gender distribution (x2 =0.832,P =0.362) but a significant difference in age distribution (x2 =49.391,P =0.000).The proportion of children in the simple FSF group (23.5％) was higher than in the complex FSF group (15.0％); the proportion of the middle-aged in the complex FSF group (25.0％) was higher than in the simple FSF group (17.3％).There were 892 cases of proximal FSF,1,243 cases of middle FSF,627 cases of distal FSF,and 374 cases of multi-segmental FSF.There was no significant difference in gender distribution among the 4 groups (x2 =6.534,P =O.881) but a significant difference in the age distribution (x2 =263.005,P =0.000).In the middle FSF group,the proportion of young patients (63.2％) was higher than in the other types of FSF while the proportion of elderly patients (4.0％) was lower than in the other types of FSF.The proportions of elderly patients in the proximal (8.5％) and distal (8.6％) groups were higher than in the other types of FSF.Conclusions There are more simple FSFs than complex FSFs,and more FSFs of middle segment than those of the other segments.The male to female ratio of FSF may approximate 2∶ 1.Victims of various types of FSF are chiefly young and middle-aged patients. Key words: Femur; Fracture, bone; Epidemiology; AO classification