Abstract
Pelvic fractures in children are rare and potentially disastrous injuries. Using medical records and radiographs over a three year period from January 2008 to March 2011 at an academic hospital we retrospectively analysed the incidence, the associated data and management of these injuries.
Results
During this time period 633 paediatric patients where admitted with trauma related injuries; only 19 had pelvic fractures, an incidence of 0.03%.
The majority of these patients (13) were involved in PVA's; while MVA (3), fall from height (1) and sports injuries (1) made up the rest. Males (13) were injured more commonly and the average age of the patients was 9 years (3–14).
There is debate of over the ideal paediatric pelvic fracture classification system in the literature. However, 13 pelvic fractures were classified stable; 3 were unstable fractures with disruption of the pelvic ring. In addition 2 iliac wing fractures and 1 avulsion (apophyseal) fracture were found.
58% of the patients had associated injuries, however, only 2 of the 19 had associated abdominal viscus injuries. Neither of these required exploratory laparotomy and were managed conservatively.
The treatment of these pelvic fractures in our unit was patient specific and largely conservative. 17 patients' pelvic fractures were treated with bed rest, analgesia and mobilisation as pain allowed while the remaining 2 had pelvic external fixators. No ORIF's were performed. Associated orthopaedic injuries were managed accordingly.
The average hospital stay of a patient with a pelvic fracture was 15 days (3–48 days).
There were no mortalities during this time period.
