Citation

Wichlas F, Hahn FM, Tsitsilonis S, Lindner T, Marnitz T, Deininger C, Hofmann V. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023; 20(2): e1265.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph20021265

PMID

36674018

PMCID

PMC9859434

Abstract

Increasing patient inflow into the emergency department makes it necessary to optimize triage management. The scope of this work was to determine simple factors that could detect fractures in patients without the need for specialized personnel. Between 2014 and 2015, 798 patients were admitted to an orthopedic emergency department and prospectively included in the study. The patients received a questionnaire before contacting the doctor.

OBJECTIVE and subjective data were evaluated to determine fracture risk for the upper and lower extremities. The highest risk for fractures in one region was the hip (73.21%; n = 56), followed by the wrist (60.32%; n = 63) and the femoral shaft (4 of 7, 57.14%; n = 7). The regions with the lowest risk were the knee (8.41%; n = 107), the ankle (18.29%; n = 164), and the forearm shaft (30.00%; n = 10). Age was a predictor for fracture: patients older than 59 years had a risk greater than 59.26%, and patients older than 90 years had a risk greater than 83.33%. The functional questions could exclude fractures. Three factors seem to be able to predict fracture risk: the injured region, the patient's age, and a functional question. They can be used for a probatory heuristic that needs to be proven in a prospective way.

Language: en

Keywords

age; emergency department; fracture risk; functional questions; visual analog scale