Comparison of fracture patterns between rural and urban populations in a developing country.

INTRODUCTION: The pattern of fracture, including the anatomical location and age distribution, may differ among urban and rural populations due to various factors such as the inhabitants' occupation and living environment. METHODS: This was a retrospective multicentre study involving two urban and three rural hospitals in Malaysia. The demographic data and anatomical location of fracture of patients admitted in 2007 were collected for analysis. RESULTS: A total of 7,973 patients were admitted for fractures between January and December 2007. The femur was the commonest fracture site that required admission in the urban population (21.9 percent), followed by the tibia-fibula (18.7 percent), while the radius-ulna was the commonest site among the rural population (22.0 percent), followed by the tibia-fibula (19.4 percent). The rates of head and pelvic fractures were comparatively higher in the urban population, while hand fractures were more common in the rural population. The higher rate of femur fracture in the urban group, especially among the elderly, may be due to the higher incidence of osteoporosis or a higher proportion of older people in the population. CONCLUSION: The anatomical locations of common fractures differed between the urban and rural populations. A higher rate of upper limb fractures was observed in the rural areas, while femur fractures in the elderly was the main cause of fracture admission in the urban areas. The relatively high rate of hand fractures in the rural areas, especially among children and young adults, may require further investigation.

Early outcome of reamed interlocking nail for non-union of tibia.

Aseptic non-union is a major problem following complicated fracture tibia, which carries significant morbidity and prolonged course of treatment. Plate fixation and autogenous bone grafting has been established as a method of treatment. However the risk of infection, implant failure and donor site morbidity are high. We reviewed twelve consecutive cases of established non-union tibia treated by closed reamed interlocking nail in our centre. All patients had clinical and radiological union at three months. Three patients were complicated with infection and one required removal of implant and re-reaming to eradicate infection. Reamed interlocking nailing is an alternative treatment for selected non-union of fracture tibia with promising results.

Coarctation of aorta repair at the National Heart Institute (1983-1994).

This retrospective study illustrates our approach to this problem over the years, from performing subclavian flap aortoplasty initially to the more accepted procedure now, which is resection and end-to-end anastomosis. Coarctation of aorta in our population is seen in a varying age groups and are also associated with other cardiac anomalies including both acyanotic and cyanotic congenital cardiac defects. Therefore a wide variety of surgical procedures were performed including resection of the coarcted segment and end-to-end anastomosis, subclavian flap aortoplasty, patch aortoplasty and synthetic tube graft interposition. Subclavian flap aortoplasty is not widely practised anymore in favour of resection with end-to-end anastomosis. Fifty four point four percent of patients had isolated coarctation, 10.5% had associated valvular defects, 28.1% had other simple congenital defects and 7.0% had associated complex cyanotic congenital defects. Perioperative mortality was 5.26% and is correlated with the younger age of patients at time of surgery and severity of cardiac failure at time of presentation. We did not see any difference in mortality for patients with complex congenital disease or between the different surgical procedures. However, we did find that in the early period when resection with end-to-end anastomosis was performed, there was a significantly higher incidence of morbidities.

Obstruction of mechanical heart valve--diagnosis, surgical treatment and outcome.

From 1982 till 1999, our department performed a total of 2970 heart valve replacements--92% of which were with mechanical heart valves. During this period, there were 8 patients who came to our department with mechanical heart valve obstruction. All these patients presented with signs of heart failure or compromised haemodynamic. Confirmatory tests included transthoracic or transoesophageal echocardiography and cine fluoroscopy. Seven patients were operated upon urgently. Four of the patients had valve thrombosis. The time interval between the initial implantation and presentation varies from 4 months to 11.3 years. Six of the seven patients who were operated on recovered well from the surgery.

Partial resection of pelvis and salvage of the lower limb in the treatment of malignant pelvic tumours.

Malignant pelvic tumours often present late, hence a high index of suspicion should be maintain in order to arrive at the diagnosis. This is particularly true for those who have unusual symptoms. A proper planning and staging strategies is required to save the limb, and the limb salvage surgery is at present the surgery of choice to achieve local control and restoring optimum functions of the lower limbs as being illustrated by our three cases.

Surgical experience with cardiac tumours at the General Hospital, Kuala Lumpur.

Fifteen patients underwent surgery for cardiac tumours in General Hospital Kuala Lumpur between October 1984 and June 1989. Twelve of the patients had cardiac myxomas and underwent excision under cardiopulmonary bypass. Two patients had sarcoma, of which one was excised. The other was inoperable. Another patient had a metastalic malignant melanoma which was inoperable. Of the patients 10 were female and five male. Their ages ranged from 16 to 60 years. All were symptomatic and the commonest mode of presentation was exertional dyspnoea and palpitations. Two presented with cerebral embolisation. The three patients with malignant tumours had constitutional symptoms at the time of surgery. All patients had echocardiography pre-operatively to confirm the diagnosis of cardiac tumour. Only one patient underwent preoperative cardiac catheterisation and angiography. The surgical approach in all patients was through a median sternotomy and all except one were operated under cardiopulmonary bypass. There was no intraoperative embolisation. There was one perioperative death. Fourteen patients were followed up for periods ranging from one to 44 months. Three patients with malignant cardiac tumours died. One had recurrence of myxoma 21 months after the initial surgery. We conclude that excision of cardiac myxomas carry a very small risk following which patients have good prognosis. Malignant tumours carry a bad prognosis. From our experience, we conclude that echocardiography is an extremely accurate tool in the diagnosis of cardiac tumours.