BACKGROUND

There is an increasing in the number of injury of long bone of upper limb as compared to years before 2015, there is possibility of increasing number of motorbikes and riding of people with younger age, also increasing in cars might have contributed, since other causes like falls and trauma has not changed as much as for car and motorbike accident.

OBJECTIVE

Was to determine pattern of fracture of long bones of upper limb in orthopedic department at KCMC from December 2014 to December 2015.

METHOD

Retrospective hospital based descriptive study, patients file numbers with injury of long bone of upper limb within the time interval indicated were written down from the admission book,then files were obtained from the medical records, incase there some information missing I had to go in radiology department for clarification of the data. According to data collecting sheet and inclusion criteria if there are information still missing the case was dropped down. All information obtained were transferred to SPSS 20 for statistical analysis of the data.

RESULTS

A total of 155 cases of fracture of long bones of upper limb who met the inclusion criteria were obtained for a period of one year from the medical records and radiology department. Almost men had twice the chance of fracture compared to females, their ratio was 1:1.9 female to male. Nearly half of injuries occurred to people with age below 18 years 44.5% (N =69) with a mean age of 27years (4-78years) of which humerus was the leading bone to fracture 51.3% (N =79). Approximately rural and urban people had equal chance of injury, their ratio is 1:1.3 respectively. Right side injured more compared to left 57.4% (N =89) and distal part was involved in most of time than proximal and mid shaft 49% (N=76). Motorbike accident was the leading cause followed by car accident then falls.

CONCLUSION

Fracture of long bone of upper limb had a prevalence of 22% with male involvement nearly twice the chance as female. People with age <18 years had high chance of injury compared to other ages ( N=69) while distal humerus was mostly injured 49% ( N=76). The two most causes were motor traffic accident and falls, with transverse fracture being the leading type of fracture 40% ( N=62)