Retrospective epidemiological study of supracondylar fractures of the humeral bone in children from urban and rural areas of the Lublin region in eastern Poland.

INTRODUCTION Supracondylar fractures of the humeral bone are frequent injuries in children. It has been affirmed that supracondylar fractures have an excellent prognosis when proper treatment is applied. OBJECTIVE Present of the statistical relationships between fractures occurring and patient's development period; the relation between development period and site of the fracture and statistical relationship between development period and gender of the patients. Also indicated are the place of residence of the hospitalized patients and time of admission to the Clinic after injury. MATERIALS AND METHOD Research was based on the data of paediatric patients treated in the Clinic for Paediatric Surgery, Traumatology and Paaediatric Orthopaedics, and Rehabilitation Clinic of the Medical University in Lublin, Poland, between 1986- 2010. An independent Chi-square Test was used for statistical analysis (χ²). RESULTS The majority of patients were admitted to the Clinic on the day of injury. Of these patients, 71% lived in the urban area of the Lublin region where all the children received medical care in hospital directly after trauma; 29% of children came from the rural areas of the Lublin region, and 10% of them were admitted to hospital 24 or more hours after the injury. CONCLUSION 71% of patients lived in the urban areas of the Lublin region and the main cause of injury was a fall from a higher level onto an outstretched upper left limb. Most supracondylar fractures of the humeral bone concerned children at school and adolescent age. Despite the fact that some of the hospitalised children lived in the rural areas of the Lublin region, the majority were admitted to the Clinic directly after trauma and received timely treatment.