77% pelvic fractures recorded in PGI are due to accidents

CHANDIGARH: In India, the incidence of pelvic fractures is on a rise due to roads accidents. In fact, the trauma centre in the PGI recorded 77% pelvic fractures due to such accidents. Those who met with road accidents were in their productive age.
The report has been recently published in the ‘Chinese Journal of Traumatology’ by Subhajit Ghosh, Sameer Aggarwal, Vishal Kumar, Sandeep Patel, Prasoon Kumar, department of orthopaedics, PGI. Pelvic fractures are perhaps the most severe and lifethreatening injuries, constituting about 1.5%-3% of all skeletal injuries. Though it is a small percentage, the fracture is associated with morbidity and mortality.
The study found that there are patients in PGI, referred from the adjoining states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, where the topography consists of hilly areas with suboptimal roads and poor traffic sense prevailing among drivers. This could have caused a high incidence of vehicle accidents.
A total of 3,680 trauma cases were presented during the study period, out of which 104 had sustained pelvic injuries, comprising 2.82% of total cases. However, after screening, 75 patients were selected and formed the sample size for the study.