Medicine / Trauma

Don't break this bone gentlemen, . . . and ladies.
Matthew Vasey, MD
Editor, New York Journal of Style and Medicine

Nobody wants to break a bone. There are over 200 bones in the human body. One of these bones is the pelvis. The pelvis is actually three bones fused together about the size and shape of an Olive Garden pasta entree that sits at the bottom of your abdomen.

In 1996, the Department of Transportation created the Crash Injury Research Engineering Network (CIREN). (2) This is basically a network created from ten Level 1, like the program ER, trauma facilities around the United States. CIREN is a collaborated effort of car manufactures, law enforcement, the government and healthcare workers to extensively study car crashes in attempt to save your life assuming you will be in a serious car crash one day.

Almost two thousand patients experiencing car crashes, about five hundred of whom experienced fractures of their pelvis, were studied in attempt to determine risk factors for pelvic fractures in car crashes. (2) This was done with the hopes of uncovering useful information that could be utilized to in someway protect your pelvis. Breaking your pelvis, unfortunately, remains a significant cause of long term injury and death. Death following a pelvic fracture has been reported to be as high as 30% (1). Ergo, CIREN.

An alarming finding from the study was that half of the two thousand patients reported on were not wearing their seatbelt at the time of the accident. Not wearing a seatbelt proved to be a significant risk factor for pelvis fractures in frontal collisions. (2) Other risk factors established were higher Body Mass Index or a calculation of height and weight, in frontal collisions. BMI was not significant in driver side collisions. Collisions on the passenger side of the car so infrequently caused fractures of the pelvis in drivers it was not even included in this study. Welcome to the world of statistics, mind you, these stats are only related to pelvis fractures.

The important thing to understand is the seriousness of pelvic fractures in car accidents and the utility of seatbelts. A pelvic fracture should always be ruled out in a motor vehicle collision.

References:

1. Poole G, Ward E. Causes of mortality in patients with pelvic fracture. Orthopaedics. 1994;17:691-696
2. Stein, D, O'Connor, J, Kufera, J, et al. Risk factors associated with pelvic fractures sustained in motor vehicle collisions involving newer vehicles. The Journal of Trauma. 2006;61:21-31.