The risk of non-union per fracture: current myths and revised figures from a population of over 4 million adults

Background and purpose - Fracture non-union remains a major clinical problem, yet there are no data available regarding the overall risk of fractures progressing to non-union in a large population. We investigated the rate of non-union per fracture in a large adult population. Methods - National dat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta orthopaedica Vol. 88; no. 4; pp. 434 - 439
Main Authors: Mills, Leanora A, Aitken, Stuart A, Simpson, A Hamish R W
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Taylor & Francis 04.07.2017
Medical Journals Sweden
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Female
Fracture
Fractures, Ununited - epidemiology
Fractures, Ununited - etiology
Humans
Incidence
Male
Middle Aged
Risk Factors
Scotland - epidemiology
Sex Factors
Young Adult
ISSN:1745-3674, 1745-3682, 1745-3682
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background and purpose - Fracture non-union remains a major clinical problem, yet there are no data available regarding the overall risk of fractures progressing to non-union in a large population. We investigated the rate of non-union per fracture in a large adult population. Methods - National data collected prospectively over a 5-year period and involving just under 5,000 non-unions were analyzed and compared to the incidence of fracture in the same period. Results and interpretation - The overall risk of non-union per fracture was 1.9%, which is considerably less than previously believed. However, for certain fractures in specific age groups the risk of non-union rose to 9%. As expected, these higher rates of non-union were observed with tibial and clavicular fractures, but-less expectedly-it was in the young and middle-aged adults rather than in the older and elderly population. This study is the first to examine fracture non-union rates in a large population according to age and site, and provides more robust (and lower) estimates of non-union risk than those that are frequently quoted.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1745-3674
1745-3682
1745-3682
DOI:10.1080/17453674.2017.1321351