Epidemiology of humerus shaft fractures in children-observational study of 50 patients

Abstract

Background: Objective was to study the epidemiology of humerus shaft fracture in children. Methods: This was an observational study of 50 cases of humeral diaphyseal fractures in children aged between 5 to 15 years reporting to tertiary care center over a period of 18 months. Each patient was categorized with respect to age, sex, mode of trauma, side injured, type of fracture, associated injuries, modality of treatment given. Results: Most patients belonged to upper lower class (66 %), and 80% patient belonged to rural population. Boys (60%) were more prone to have humerus shaft fracture than girls. Mean age of the patient were 10.12 years (±2.6 SD). Most common mode of trauma was accidental fall on arm (68%). Traumatic fracture was noted in 94% of cases while 6 % cases were having pathological fracture. Most patients were having middle third shaft fracture (40%), followed by distal third (30%) and lastly proximal third (22%), and left side involvement (58%) was more. Out of the 50 patients, poly trauma was observed in 4 cases, multiple bone fracture was noted in 2 cases, while 2 patients were having fibrous dysplasia and 1 with bony cyst as an associated cause of pathological fracture and 1 patient had radial nerve injury pre-operatively. Conclusions: The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the epidemiology of humerus shaft fractures in children in respect to age, sex, socio-economic status, mode of trauma. These data can help understand the risk factors and help in preventing the incidence. Most of these fracture can be managed successfully with retrograde titanium elastic nailing system (TENS) nailing with minimal complications.