A review of acetabular fracture patterns, etiologies, and management in Jordan.

OBJECTIVES: To review the epidemiology of acetabular fractures in Jordan and to provide a base to advance high-level clinical research in the future. METHODS: A total of 141 acetabular fractures admitted to King Hussein Medical City, Amman, Jordan, from July 2018 to December 2022 were reviewed retrospectively. Fractures were classified according to Judet and Letournel and were analyzed regarding age, gender, the cause of injury, fracture classification, mode of treatment, and associated nerve and other body part injuries. RESULTS: Males represented 84.4% of patients. The mean age was 42.52 (±17.655) years, and the age group from 20 to 39 represented 54.6% of patients. Road traffic accidents caused 56.7% of injuries, and 53.9% had other accompanying injuries. Posterior wall fractures were the most common (37.6%) patterns, and femoral head dislocation was reported in 28.4%. Posttraumatic and iatrogenic sciatic nerve injuries were reported in 7% of patients. The mean time from admission to surgery was 7.62 (±7.915) days; 66% of patients received surgical treatment, and 83.9% had a satisfactory reduction. CONCLUSION: Acetabular fractures are uncommon injuries, with road traffic accidents being the most common cause of injury. Posterior wall fracture was the most frequent pattern; most patients were males. Our results are comparable to the literature. However, we recommend future studies to measure the outcome of acetabular fracture management.

Impact of Social Distancing on Geriatric Hip Fractures Among Jordanian Population During COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: There were serious concerns about delivering the care and support to the elderly population in Jordan during the full lockdown period. In turn, this raised concerns about how this group of population will care for themselves and if this change in the situation will increase the risk of falls and related geriatric hip fractures. Hip fractures are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the geriatric population. Jordan has been affected by the coronavirus disease, COVID-19; pandemic like other parts of the world. The Jordanian authorities acted early to prevent the infection from spread, and lockdown along with social distancing measures were implemented early and enforced. Even though these measures successfully slowed the spread of the virus, some concerns were raised about the delivery of care by the family and caregivers to Jordanian geriatric population. Objective: We studied the effect of lockdown and social distancing in Jordan on hip fracture incidence among the geriatric population during the lockdown period. Methods: This retrospective observational study was conducted at two Jordanian Royal Medical Services (JRMS) hospitals, King Hussein Medical Center and Prince Rashid Hospital. Patients who were treated surgically for traumatic hip dislocation during lockdown (15th March to 30th April 2020) were compared with patients during the corresponding period in 2019 regarding the incidence of geriatric hip fractures. Results: The lockdown group included 102 trauma patients, 68 patients (66.7%) had geriatric hip fractures. On the other hand, the non-lockdown group included 144 patients, 45 (31.3%) had hip fractures. Thus, the proportion of patients with geriatric hip fractures in the lockdown group was significantly higher than the non-lockdown group (P=0.034). However, the geriatric hip fractures male to female ratio were the same in lockdown and non-lockdown groups (1:1.5). Conclusion: During the complete lockdown and social distancing due to COVID-19, the epidemiology of surgically treated fractures changed; there is a decrease in the total number of trauma patients and an increase in the proportion of geriatric hip fractures.