It is difficult to treat serious complicated fractures. The prognosis of open fractures is especially influenced by early treatment. We report the examination of extremity fractures in the critical care center of Kurume University Hospital from 1988 to 1991.
228 patients have had 416 fractures in the past 5 years and 54 patients of these had 88 open fractures. Patients ranged in age from 5 to 91 years with an average of 42.4 years. We examined the cause of fratures in these patients, their complications, the time of initiation of orthopaedic treatment and the relation ship of these factors to the prognosis.
Recently the number of patients with fractures has increased with traffic accidents accounting for 70.4%. Among the complications a great deal of heads and circulatory system trauma was found. Patients with serious complications had to wait a much longer time to receive orthopaedic treatment, and many of them subsequently became infected thus worsening their prognosis.