Özet:

Introduction and Objectives: We aimed to examine the demographic and clinical characteristics of children with Fragility Bone fractures (FF) in our pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and to evaluate possible risk factors for FF. Material and methods: The medical records of patients hospitalized in the PICU in the previous five years were reviewed in terms of their demographic, anatomical, and therapeutic features. Results: Seven patients with a total of nine bone fractures were identified. During this period, 807 patients were admitted to the PICU (0.59 fracture cases / 1000 hospitalization days). The median patient age at the time of fracture definition was 5.29±2.82 years (range: 1.39 to 8.43 years). Four patients were diagnosed with congenital quadriplegic cerebral palsy (CP), one with quadriplegia after cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, one with meningomyelocele, and one with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Six patients were hospitalized for extended periods. The mean length of hospitalization in patients with bone fractures (73.92 days) was significantly higher than the length of stay of all patients (14.72 days) (p < 0.001). Bone fractures were detected between days two and 165 of admission. Bone fractures were in the humerus in one case and the femur in all others. No patients had a weight percentile <5% based on Turkish national data. Based on evaluation of weight for height, one patient had mild protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), one was overweight, one was obese, and the others were normal. All patients were also diagnosed with epilepsy, were fed by nasogastric tube, and experienced prolonged immobility. Conclusions: Patients hospitalized in the PICU are at risk for fragility fractures. Rapid evaluation and treatment in terms of fragility bone fractures should be initiated, particularly in the presence of clinical clues during the follow-up of patients with CP. Conditions that cause long-term immobility such as CP and SMA are the principal risk factors.

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