Updated Trends of Fractures, A Single Trauma Centre Prospective Observational Study

Abstract

Background Trauma, specifically physical trauma, is the damage to the body caused by an external force. This may be caused by accidents, falls, hits, weapons, and other causes.In medicine, traumatology is defined as the study of wounds and injuries caused by accidents or violence to a person, together with the surgical therapy and repair of this damage. Aim of the Work This study primarily aims to identify the prevalence of fractures in our population and fracture patterns as regards the age, the gender, the comorbidities of the patients, the mode of trauma, the classification, the associated injuries and the management at our institute. Patients and Methods This study is a cross sectional observational study in which the STROBE layout was used. It was conducted in a university hospital which is considered as a tertiary trauma center “Ain Shams University hospital.”. Data regarding the patients were collected over a period of six months started from the first of January 2021 and ended by the end of June 2021. No follow up was needed for any patients. Results Results showed that most prevalent fractures were femur fractures especially in geriatrics, followed by radius fractures that mainly occurred in pediatric age group, tibial fractures were the third most common fractures and mainly affected adult age group, humeral fractures were the fourth most common with pediatrics age group mainly affected. Malleolar fractures were the fifth prevalent fractures followed by the ulnar fractures. Conclusion Fracture prevalence numbers vary substantially according to age and gender for different locations and presumably the percentage of osteoporotic fractures are on the rise. Careful assessment of fragility fractures is needed, developing a trauma registry and filing systems is mandatory in order to accurately collect and save this important data. Femur fractures especially geriatric femur fractures, radius especially distal end and tibial fractures (especially the shaft), accordingly the learning curve should be guided towards mastering the management of those fractures. Hospital preparation, instrumentation and creation of special dedicated units like the orthogeriatric unit should be encouraged to provide better care for patients along with enhancing the inter-specialty communication and aiming for multi-disciplinary team management. Data from the study should be implemented nationwide to help develop preventative strategies aiming for lowering the occurrence of fractures