High Dependency Unit Admissions among Patients with Lower Extremity Long Bone Fracture Visiting the Department of Orthopaedics in a Tertiary Care Centre.

Introduction: Lower extremity long bone, femoral and tibial shaft, fractures often have associated injuries. Patients with lower extremity long bone fractures in the Department of Orthopaedics can land up in high dependency unit admissions, mostly due to underlying complications. The study aimed to find out the prevalence of high dependency unit admissions among patients with lower extremity long bone fractures visiting the Department of Orthopaedics in a tertiary care centre.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among patients with lower extremity long bone fractures in a tertiary care centre. The data from 1 March 2017 to 31 January 2020 was collected from the medical records from 1 August 2020 to 30 September 2020. All patients with femoral or tibial shaft fractures in isolation or a part of a multi-system injury were included. Patients with inadequate data were excluded. A convenience sampling method was used. The point estimate was calculated at a 95% Confidence Interval.

Results: Among 507 patients with lower extremity long bone fractures, 137 (27.55%) (23.66-31.44, 95% Confidence Interval) required high dependency unit admission. Among them, 119 (86.86%) were males. A total of 71 (51.82%) cases involved 2-wheelers.

Conclusions: The prevalence of high dependency unit admission among patients with lower extremity long bone fractures was high and majority of them required multidisciplinary approach.

Keywords: femoral fractures; prevalence; tibial fractures; traffic accidents.