Is it possible to reduce treatment costs in distal radius torus fractures?

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of parental information on the number of radiological examinations, the number of orthopedics outpatient visits, the duration of early orthopedic outpatient admission, the fracture recovery scores of reduction, and the cost of treatment of torus fractures in children in in the emergency service.Material and Method: A total of 85 patients having stable torus fractures, aged between 0-16 years have been included to the longituidinal study during the period of first of April 1, 2020 and first of September, 2022. A total of 44 patients whose parents are not informed were evaluated in the emergency department and were transfered to the Orthopedics polyclinic (No Information group- No-INF), whereas 41 patients were evaluated by the Orthopedist in the emergency department and their parents were informed directly (Information group- INF). The groupd were compared in terms of the duration of the first admission to the orthopedic polyclinic, the number of applications to the orthopedic polyclinic, the number of radiological examinations performed, whether reduction has been performed, fracture healing scores and current treatment costs and correlation was analyzed. Results: The MAYO Wrist Score (p=0.80), age (p=0.712), gender (p=0.815), and complications (p=0.482) did not differ significantly between the No-INF and INF groups. Patients in the INF group whose parents have been directly informed in the emergency department had lower orthopedic polyclinic application rates (p<0.001), longer delay for the first orthopedic polyclinic admission (p<0.001) and a lower probability and/or less number of X-Ray evaluation(p<0.001). Correlation between the variables such as Patient’s Modified MAYO Wrist Scores, the number of orthopedic polyclinic visits, the first orthopedic polyclinic admission time, the reduction procedure and the number of X-Rays was not ststistically significant (p>0.05). Findings show that additional tests and procedures such as radiography has increased the costs of 6-41% in the present study. Conclusion: It can be concluded that adequate information in the emergency services for parents of children with stable torus fractures might provide a reduction in treatment costs due to lower orthopaedic polyclinic admission and reduced radiographic examination. Wrist MAYO scores have not been affected application of reduction, radiographic evaluation, polyclinic admission and time.