Characteristics and outcomes of trauma-related emergency visits of patients with rheumatological diseases

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine how trauma added to chronic disease affects rheumatological disease and to determine which emergencies should be considered in these patients. Materials and Methods: The preliminary screening data of the study were accessed using the SQL programme. Patient files that did not meet the inclusion criteria for the seven-year retrospective study were extracted using Microsoft Excel (360) programme. The prescreened patient files were searched with the key words "fall, impact, sprain, high-energy accident, heavy lifting" using the hospital information management system, ISHOP programme. The 174 patients included in the study were grouped as "patients with fracture" and "patients without fracture". Current age, age at the time of trauma, gender, comorbidity, number of traumas, diagnosis of rheumatological disease, fracture site, subluxation, dislocation, fracture with subluxation or dislocation, rotational deformity, treatments, service hospitalisation, emergency surgery, posttraumatic outpatient follow-up, osteoporosis, neurological involvement, 30-day mortality were obtained from hospital records. Mean, standard deviation, median minimum, maximum, frequency and ratio values were used in descriptive statistics of the data. SPSS 28.0 programme was used in the analyses. Results: The age at the time of trauma was found to be significantly higher in patients with fracture compared to the group without fracture (p<0.05). While the rate of comorbidities was significantly higher in the fracture group compared to the non-fracture group (p<0.05), no significant difference was observed between specific diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, CHF and CRF (p>0.05). Osteoporosis and neurological involvement rates were significantly higher in patients with fractures (p<0.05). Conclusion: Age, osteoporosis and neurologic involvement were found to be associated with fractures in patients with rheumatologic diseases.