Abstract
Background and Objective: Fractures and dislocations are a significant public health and economic burden for any country, but current knowledge on the basic epidemiology of fractures in Saudi Arabia is very limited. This retrospective analysis was performed to determine the patterns of incidence of traumatic fractures and dislocations in the urban population of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
Materials and Methods: Data were collected on all fractures and dislocations admitted to the orthopaedic wards between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2009. The inclusion criteria were all patients admitted after trauma. The data collected included was the type of accident, fracture and dislocations sustained, surgery undertaken either emergency or elective, implants used, associated injuries, complications, status of the union of the fracture at the time of the final review and complications.
Results: There were 1428 patients with 2056 fractures and dislocations. Five-hundred and eighty-four (40.89%) of the injuries were sustained in road traffic and motorcycle accidents. Lower extremity fractures were 830, upper extremity fractures were 555 and spinal fractures were 323. Of these, 202 (14.4%) patients had dislocations, a majority of which were hip joint dislocations. The overall complication rate was 166 (11.69%) and infections formed the majority. Delayed union occurred in 32, nonunion in 24 and malunion requiring surgery occurred in 17. Twenty-seven (1.31%) of fractures were missed.
Conclusions: This analysis shows that road traffic accidents are still a major cause of trauma in an urban population and lower extremities form the common site of fractures. Fractures and dislocations due to trauma are steadily increasing and the young are the most affected. We believe that injury prevention programs should be made mandatory to limit muskuloskeletal injuries resulting from trauma. In the coming years, the number of these injuries will rise considerably with the increase in population.