Fact or Fiction: Is Orthopedic Follow-Up Worse for Patients Who Sustain Penetrating Trauma?

Commonly accepted dogma is that patients with a long bone fracture due to a penetrating injury (gunshot wound) are less likely to follow up than blunt trauma patients. An institutional trauma database from a Level 1 academic trauma center was utilized to include all patients with long bone fractures from penetrating trauma from 2006-2009 (N = 132). Demographically matched blunt trauma patients with long bone fractures were included as a comparison group (N = 104). The medical records of these 236 patients were reviewed to observe their follow-up at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. There was no statistically significant difference (P = 0.736) between the penetrating and blunt trauma patients in terms of their follow-up within 1 year from time of injury. At the 1 year end point 103/132 (78%) of the penetrating group and 83/104 (80%) of the blunt group were lost to follow-up. The results of this study call into question the routine exclusion of penetrating trauma patients from research studies, as well as encourage further research to improve patient retention.