Femur fractures : statistics of end-results / by John B. Walker.

  • Walker, John B.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Femur fractures : statistics of end-results / by John B. Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    FEMUR FRACTURES: STATISTICS OF END-RESULTS* John B. Walker, M.D., Professor of Clinical Surgery, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University; Sur- geon to Bellevue Hospital. New York City. The educational value of fracture statistics to our profession, to the Workmen’s Compensation insurance companies, and to the public is just being taught, and when fully understood and appreciated, it will very materially improve the efficiency of our treatment of fractures. Wherever one studies the statistics of accidents it is universally found that collapse of structure and falls of materials cause the larger number of accidents, and the results of these accidents are wounds and fractures. The relative severity of these injuries is best illustrated by the considera- tion of the time lost as a result of them, and the highest average loss shown by any of the injuries is due to fractures. To illustrate with a specific example from the 1913 Annual Report of the Industrial Insurance Department of the State of Washington: 12,380 cases of accidents received $465,000 compensation for 340,000 days of disability. Among these were 1,383 cases of fractures which received $122,000 for 90,000 days of disability; that is, the fractures, which constituted only 10 per cent, of the total injuries, received 27 per cent, of the total com- pensation. Furthermore, 266 cases, or 20 per cent., of all fractures still suffered some perma- nent partial disability. Similar conditions could be •Read before New York and New England Association of Railway Surgeons, Oct. 21, 1914.