A 1-year prospective monocentric study of limb, spinal and pelvic fractures: Can monitoring fracture epidemiology impact injury prevention programmes?

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess fractures of extremities, spine and pelvis in patients with respect to mechanism, time of the incident and demography of patients in order to propose preventive measures.

Methods: A mono-centric (Level I Trauma Centre, predominantly urban population) prospective study was carried-out during the one-year period from 1 January to 31 December 2012. Patients with bone fractures of extremities, spine and pelvis were studied. Demography, mechanism and time of the injury were analysed.

Results: The study group consisted of 3,148 patients, 53% being women and treated for 3,909 fractures. The mean age of patients was 53 years. The most traumatised patients were of the 3rd and 4th decade, a further increase in the incidence of fractures was seen in the 7th and 9th decade. Multiple fractures were significantly higher in men (p = 0.002). A car crash or fall from a height was more common cause of spinal fracture or pelvic fracture than fracture to the upper or lower limbs (p < 0.001). Most of the fractures occurred during the day between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., on Saturdays and during the winter season. The bones most often broken were the radius (739 patients, 18.5%) and femur (436 patients, 11.1%).

Conclusions: Our study highlights the need for injury prevention focused on sex, age and types of activities performed. Among younger individuals, such programmes should primarily be targeted toward men who, as observed in our sample, have a higher fracture frequency compared to women. Conversely, injury prevention programmes for individuals ≥ 60 years should primarily be targeted toward women, who have the highest fracture prevalence in this population.