Although non-union is a devastating and costly consequence of trauma for the child, family and society it is felt to be a rare complication in children. Currently there is no data available in the literature regarding its incidence either per fracture or per head of population. Should we be taking paediatric fracture non-union more seriously regarding research, resource allocation and informed consent? Our aim was to determine the incidence of non-union per child and per fracture. In Scotland Information Services Division (NHS Scotland) records every inpatient admission by ICD-10 diagnosis. As almost all fracture non-unions require intervention ISD provides accurate non-union figures by site and age. However, many fractures are treated as outpatients. Using local data of overall fracture numbers we were able to calculate a ratio of inpatient to total fracture numbers and apply this nationally.Aim
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