ABSTRACT
To explore the clinical medication rules in the patients with limb fractures, and provide guidance for clinical practice. Data of 48 398 patients with limb fractures from 2001 to 2011 was extracted from the hospital information system(HIS) established by the institute of basic research in clinical medicine, China academy of Chinese medical sciences. The gender and age distribution of patients and clinical medication characteristics were described. Apriori algorithm was adopted to analyze the common drug combinations of Chinese medicine(CM) and western medicine(WM). The study results showed that the ratio of included males and females was 1.83∶1. There was a high peak of incidence for the patients from 18 to 44 years. Apriori algorithm showed that the usage of WM was more frequent than that of CM. The most commonly used CM was Lugua polypeptide and sodium aescinate injection. Blood-activating and stasis-resolving medicines, as well as tendons and bones-strengthening medicines were the commonly used CM types. In addition, WM antibiotics plus blood-activating and stasis-resolving CM, or antibiotics plus tendons and bones-strengthening CM was the most commonly used drug combination. Based on the analysis of available data, the prevalence of limb fracture was higher in men than in women; more in young and middle-aged patients; the common drug combination was antibiotics plus blood-activating and stasis-resolving CM, or antibiotics plus tendons and bones-strengthening CM. More prospective and high-quality clinical trials are necessary to evaluate the effect of CM or integrative medicine treatment for limb fracture in the future research.