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Abstract
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An accident is an event, occurring suddenly, unexpectedly and inadvertently under unforeseen circumstances. Road traffic accidents (RTA) rank first among all accidents throughout the world. In developed countries, it is the most common cause of death below the age of 50 years. RTA account for almost 1.3 million deaths and a further 20 to 50 million non-fatal injuries per year globally. Road traffic injury is defined as a fatal or a non-fatal injury incurred as a result of collision on a public road involving at least one moving vehicle.(1)
Rapid urbanization, unplanned roads and highways, incompetent traffic system, violation of traffic laws by the drivers and pedestrians, overcrowding, reckless driving etc are possible explanations for increased figures of RTA.
Pattern of injury varies considerably depending upon whether the victim is a pedestrian, a pedal cyclist, a motor cyclist or a vehicle occupant. They sustain large varieties of injuries and occurrence of skeletal injuries is extremely high. The classical fatal skeletal injuries in pedestrians are skull fractures and fractures of the lower limb bones. In case of a rider or a pillion rider of a motorcycle, the most common injury is fracture of the skull, commonly known as motor cyclist's fracture, whereas four wheeler occupants sustain transmitted fracture of femur or pelvis, fractures of the skull and whiplash injury.(2)
When compared to head injury, the other skeletal bone fractures make the patient to suffer from greater degree of morbidity. Skeletal injuries alone due to RTA is a rare cause of death, but indirectly results in death, like the fracture of long bones leading to haemorrhage and shock due to rupture of large vessels. Trauma is the leading cause of death and disability for patients under 45 years in the industrialized world.(3, 4) These rates are declining in the developed countries but injuries are important and are largely neglected health problem in developing countries.(5) Road traffic crashes constitute a major public health problem in our setting and the young adult male in their economically productive age-group are mostly involved.
This hospital based study was undertaken to report the pattern and distribution of long bone fractures in RTA. It is a retrospective descriptive study on RTA victims presenting to St. John's Medical College Hospital, Bangalore between October, 2015 and May, 2016. Study group comprised 400 individuals who met with RTA and had extremity injuries. Study period is 8 months. The affected age group was between 15-47 years and the great majority of them were males (305) 76%. The commonest site of injury was lower extremities (216) 54%. Injuries to upper extremities (156) comprised 39% of the cases.
Language: en |