This study consists of an orthopaedic and psychosocial re-evaluation of children who experienced femur fractures as young as 3 years old and aims to analyze potential causes and detect Child Abuse rates. Thirty-five children under the age of three years who experienced femoral shaft fractures received care at the Emergency Department of the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Service of Santa Casa de São Paulo within the period ranging from January, 1996 to August, 2002. Eighteen patients returned to the hospital for re-evaluation. The reported causes for fractures were: fall in 13 cases (72.2%), object fall on the limb in 2 cases (11.1%). Child abuse was suspected in 9 cases (physical abuse in 6 cases (33.3%), negligence in 3 cases (16.7%), pathological fracture in 4 cases (22.2%), accidental causes in 3 cases (16.7%), and other causes in 2 cases (11.1%). Child abuse constitutes an important cause that needs to be investigated in cases of femur fracture in children under the age of three years and this has possibly been the mechanism responsible for half of the fractures investigated in the current study.
Femoral fractures; Child abuse; Children
