Epidemiological investigation of humeral intercondylar fractures at The Third Affiliated Hospital to Hebei Medical University from 2003 through 2012

Abstract

Objective To investigate the epidemiological features and trends of humeral intercondylar fractures at our hospital from 2003 through 2012. Methods The clinical data were retrospec-tively analyzed of all the patients with humeral intercondylar fracture who had been treated between January 2003 and December 2012 at our institute. The patients’ age, gender, fracture site and AO classification were documented. The data between 2003 and 2007 were classified as group A while the data between 2008 and 2012 as group B. The epidemiological characteristics during the 10 years concerning age, gender and fracture type were compared between the 2 groups. Results A total of 303 humeral intercondylar fractures were recorded, accounting for 5.29% of the distal humeral fractures, 3.39% of the elbow fractures and 0.24% of the total fractures at the same period. They involved 197 males and 106 females, with a male/female ratio of 1.86∶1. The high-risk age group was adolescent and middle-aged adults, accounting for 63.70%. The high-risk type was type 13-C2, accounting for 44.00%. There were 171 and 132 cases in group A and group B, accounting for 5.40% and 5.17% of the contemporary distal humeral fractures, 3.72% and 3.05% of the contemporary elbow fractures, and 0.26% and 0.22% of all the contemporary fractures, respectively, showing no significant differences between the 2 groups(P>0.05). In groups A and B respectively, the male/female ratios were 1.44∶1 and 2.67∶1, the proportions of adolescents and the middle-aged 58.48% and 70.45%, the proportions of type 13-C1 35.83% and 18.10%, and the proportions of type 13-C3 14.17% and 44.76%, showing significant differences between the 2 groups in all the above comparisons (P< 0.05). Conclusion The humeral intercondylar fractures were common in the adolescent and middle-aged patients, with a male predominance (about twice more in males). Compared with the first five years, the latter 5 years witnessed increased proportions of males, adolescent and middle-aged patients, and type 13-C3 but a decreased proportion of type 13-C1. Key words: Humeral fractures; Epidemiology; Age distribution; Sex distribution