Pattern and Aetiology of foot injuries treated At Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (Moi)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Foot injuries are among the common injuries sustained by trauma patients, they occur in various patterns and due to different causes such as motor traffic crash, falling from height, occupational related injuries, and sports. They may occur as isolated foot injuries or may occur with multiple associated injuries. Foot injuries are commonly missed especially on the event of a multiply injured patient. MOI as the leading trauma care centre in the country attends a lot of patients with foot injuries; however there is lack of collective information with regard to either isolated foot injuries or in combination with other injuries that may commonly occur. Objective: This study was conducted with the objective of finding the prevalence of foot injuries and associated injuries in patients attended at MOI which is a tertiary hospital for the duration of 6 months from July 2017 to December 2017. Methodology: This is a descriptive cross sectional study, in which 90 patients with foot injuries were enrolled from a total of trauma patients who were attended during the 6 months of study duration. A structured questionnaire was filled in by the investigator on the first encounter with the patient to capture all the important data such as age, sex, mechanism of injury and a detailed pattern of the injury. Any other accompanying injuries on other parts of the body but in the same patient were regarded as associated injuries. Results The prevalence of traumatic foot injuries was 5.5% among 1642 trauma patients attended at the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute. The male: female ratio was 4:1. The mean age of the patients was 32 years +/- 2 (range 11 – 64 years). The most affected age group was 30- 39 years. Motorcycle crash (44.4%) was the commonest mechanisms of injury followed by motor vehicle crash (17.8%) . There were 56 patients with fractures of foot bones and a majority of them (71.4%) had open fractures. Also 55.6% of the patients had fractures of metatarsal bones. In addition to the foot injuries 35.5% of patients had concomitant injuries to other parts of the body, these concomitant injuries involved the limbs (49.4%) while injuries to the head or chest or abdomen was found in 32 patients as a concomitant/associated injury. Conclusion and recommendations Road traffic accidents especially those due to motorcycle crash continue to be a common cause of foot injury. Foot injuries may be isolated or may occur in association with injuries to the long bones of the lower or upper limbs, chest and abdomen. The productive work force age groups are the majority among injured patients. Open metatarsal fracture is the commonest type of foot injury. Further research with regard to the factors predisposing motorcycle crash victims to sustain foot injuries is necessary as well as studies assessing treatment modalities and outcome of foot injuries should be done at the institute.