[Radius fractures in children--causes and mechanisms of injury]

Radius fractures are the most common fractures in childhood. The main mechanism of injury is fall onto an outstretched hand. This retrospective study analyzed the data on 201 children admitted for radius fractures at KBC-Zagreb in the period 2011-2013. The study included 85 girls (42.3%) and 116 boys (57.7%) . The average age of the children was 9.6 years. Radius was injured in the distal segment in 79.1% of children. The sites of injuries were: park, campi and beach (24.9% of all children), playground, skate park and swimming pool (23.9%), kindergarten or school (20.9%), at home and around the house (17.9%), in the street (11.4%) and in the store or at a hotel (0.9%). The boys were mostly injured at playgrounds, during skating and at swimming pools (37.1% of all boys), while girls were mostly injured in parks, camps and at beach (42.4% girls). Fall was the major cause of the injury (49.3%), and children usually fell during ice skating and skating (32.3% of all falls). In 20.4% the injury was caused by pushing and hitting. The smallest percentage (9.5%) of children were injured in traffic accidents while riding a bike (only one child was hit by a car). Sport related activities caused injuries in 53.7% of the cases. Sport activities are the most important cause of the radial fractures in the pediatric population and falls during sports are the main mechanism of injury. The peak incidence is at 12 years for boys and at 10 years for girls, so intervention and/or prevention should be aimed at the age groups. Preventive actions should be focused on injuries that tend to occur in parks, schools and during sport activities.