Pelvic fracture

Pelvic fractures are common and often devastating injuries. Along with a high mortality, the long-term morbidity is consequential for both the individual patient and society. A thorough knowledge of the clinical approach will assist the emergency physician in providing optimal care and offer a rapid and effective treatment plan for life threatening hemorrhage. Using a case-based scenario, the initial management strategies along with rationale evidence-based treatments are reviewed.     

Colles' fracture

Many people "slip and fall", especially in the icy areas of the winter season. To prevent an injury to the head, most people put their hand out to hit the ground first, so the wrist usually gets injured. The most frequent injury from this type of "intervention" is a fracture to the distal radius and/or ulna, which is frequently called a "Colles' fracture."     

Anterior tibial spine fracture - an easy fracture to miss

Fractures of the intercondylar tibial spine are uncommon injuries that occur more frequently in the growing skeleton. They are easy to miss in the triage setting often being diagnosed as 'sprains' after sporting injuries. We report three cases that occurred in adolescents attending the same sporting event. We seek to highlight the importance of recognising these injuries so that the appropriate immediate treatment can be given.     

捆绑带宽度在骨折治疗中对骨折愈合生物力学的影响

目的探讨在骨折治疗中不同宽度的捆绑带固定对骨折愈合的生物力学影响。方法 45只新西兰大白兔随机分为3组,建立胫骨干非负重骨折动物模型,应用不同宽度(3 mm,6 mm,9 mm)捆绑带固定骨折,分别于术后2、4、6周行生物力学检查进行比较。结果术后第2周6 mm的捆绑带组抗折弯、扭转、拉伸均强度居中,9 mm组优于其他两组,3 mm组最差,有明显统计学差异(P<0.05);术后4周、6周6 mm组及3 mm组抗扭转、折弯、拉伸强度均明显增强,而9 mm组增强幅度不大。4周时6 mm组抗拉伸力与其他两组无明显统计学差异(P>0.05),抗折弯力及扭转力与9 mm组无统计学差异(P>0.05),3 mm组仍低于9 mm组,有统计学差异(P<0.05);6周时,6 mm组抗扭转力均优于其他两组,存在统计学意义(P<0.05),3 mm组优于9 mm组(P<0.05),抗折弯力及抗拉伸力6 mm组与3 mm组无统计学差异(P>0.05),均优于9 mm组(P<0.05)。结论适宜宽度的捆绑带在骨折治疗的过程中均具有较好的力学性能,并且骨折愈合的力学结果更满意。     

Complex fracture reduction by exact identification of the fracture zone

Planning of a fracture reduction is important in order to reduce the surgery time, with the consequent improvement of the recovery process. There are no fully automatic methods that solve an adequate fracture reduction without the intervention of a specialist. Usually there are parameters that must be supervised or adjusted by the specialist, in order to obtain a satisfactory reduction. Furthermore, most of the studies in the literature focus on a certain type of bone and area on it. This paper presents an approach that tries to reduce to some extent the intervention of the specialist, so that it can be closer to an automatic approach. The proposed method can be applied to a wide variety of bones and areas, based on the identification of the complete fracture zone and the use of an ICP algorithm modified to work with the distance between fragments. The cases in which it has been tested are clinical cases of real fractures obtained from CT scan. This method allows working with a wide range of fractures, as well as complex fractures or deformed fragments. Unfortunately, all possible cases and situations could not be obtained and proved, but the method can be successfully applied to cases that meet a set of characteristics. The proposed technique has been validated by experts, both visually and empirically, using a framework based on virtual reality (VR). This VR framework has allowed comparing the reduction performed by the method with a reduction made virtually by specialists. This technique has also been compared with other existing techniques, obtaining a significant improvement over these.     

Toddler's fracture.

"Toddler's fracture" can be difficult to diagnose but should be suspected whenever a child presents to the accident and emergency department with a limp or fails to bear weight on the leg. Irritable hip and subacute osteomyelitis must feature in the differential diagnosis. The history may or may not include an obvious traumatic episode. Rather than fracture, elastic bowing of the bone and consequent periosteal stripping may explain symptoms in some cases.     

Lisfranc fracture.

Nurses working in emergency care often have to manage patients with undifferentiated and previously undiagnosed conditions. This month, Emergency Nurse continues to look at how emergency nurses across the U.K. have tackled them.