EPIDEMIOLOGY OF ACUTE WRIST TRAUMA

Epidemiological data on wrist injuries in a population can be used for planning by applying them to criteria for care and thus deriving esti mates of provisions for care according to currently desirable standard s. In a 1-year study all patients greater-than-or-equal-to 15 years wi th acute wrist trauma and treated in the emergency room were examined according to an algorithm until a diagnosis was established. The overa ll incidence of wrist trauma was 69 per 10 000 inhabitants per year. I ncidence of wrist trauma requiring x-ray examination was 58 per 10 000 per year. The incidence of distal radius fractures was 27 per 10 000 per year (males, 16 per 10 000, females, 37 per 10 000 per year). In o rder to evaluate the completeness (defined as the proportion of patien ts with wrist injuries seen in the emergency room to all patients with wrist injuries in the catchment area) of the hospital-based data an a nalysis was performed using data from a population-based study. A comp leteness rate of 0.56 (95% confidence interval: 0.31-0.78) was found. An x-ray had been taken for all patients reporting a fracture thus jus tifying the use of fractures as an incidence measure when comparing gr oups of patients with wrist trauma.