FREQUENCY OF FACTORS LEADING TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNSTABLE INTERTROCHANTERIC FEMUR FRACTURES AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL, LARKANA.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of factors leading to the development of unstable intertrochanteric femur fractures (UIFF) among patients presenting at a tertiary care hospital.

Study design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Place and duration of study: Department of Orthopedics Unit 1, Chandka Medical College, Larkana, over a period of six months

Methodology: A cross-sectional analysis studied 82 patients with unstable intertrochanteric femur fractures by performing consecutive non-probabilistic sampling. The research enrolled patients between 20 to 70 years of age who had sustained fracture healing for longer than one month. Active exclusion criteria applied to individuals with multiple injuries and serious medical conditions. The data collection process obtained demographic information and details about injury mechanisms and researchers analyzed it through SPSS version 23. Results of the study received statistical significance at p ≤ 0.05 following Chi-square testing.

Result: Research conducted on 82 unstable intertrochanteric femur fracture patients revealed low-energy trauma such as falls as the leading cause at 67.1% while the patients' mean age was 53.77. The study findings showed that patient age, gender, diabetes diagnosis along with fracture duration significantly affected trauma mechanism (p < 0.05) but hypertension and cigarettes did not. The majority of patients (78%) had obesity and diabetes (54.9%) and hypertension (42.7%) among their existing health conditions.

Conclusion: The main cause of unstable intertrochanteric femur fractures results from low-energy traumas that mainly occur from falls and four medical factors including age, gender, diabetes and fracture period influence injury mechanisms but hypertension and smoking show no correlation