• Nan-Ping Yang, Chien-Lung Chan, Dachen Chu, Yu-Zhen Lin, Kai-Biao Lin, Ching-Shao Yu, I-Liang Yu, Nien-Tzu Chang, and Yi-Hui Lee.
• Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Taoyuan General Hospital, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Taoyuan 33004, Taiwan ; Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei 11221, Taiwan.
• Biomed Res Int. 2014 Jan 1; 2014: 878601.

BackgroundFrom the viewpoint of prehospital emergency medicine, a greater proportion of pelvic fractures not of a life-threatening status but combined with other injuries need more comprehensive recognition.MethodsA 12-year nationwide health database of inpatients was reviewed. All cases diagnosed as pelvic fractures were enrolled. The associated injuries classified into 20 categories were further analyzed.ResultsDuring 2000-2011, the hospitalized incidence of pelvic fractures in Taiwan ranged from 17.17 to 19.42 per 100,000, and an increasing trend with age was observed. The mean case-fatality rate was 1.6% for females and 2.1% for males; male patients with pelvic fractures had a significantly higher risk of death than female patients after adjusting for other covariates. 74.2% of these cases were combined with other injuries. The most common associated injuries in an identified body region were other orthopedic fractures of the lower limbs (21.50%), spine/trunk (20.97%), or upper limbs (18.18%), followed by significant head injuries (17.59%), intra-abdominal injuries (11.00%), and thoracic injuries (7.20%).ConclusionThe incidence of hospitalized pelvic fractures in Taiwan was low and the case-fatality rate was lower than those of other countries. Concurrently, coexistence of major combined injuries with pelvic fractures was easily treated at medical centers.

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