Fracture incidence after tibial shaft fractures. A 30-year follow-up study.

Based on all patients with tibial shaft fracture (n = 767) treated in the department of orthopedics in Malmö from 1955 to 1963, a retrospective cohort study was performed in 1990. Two hundred sixty-nine of the patients were still living in Malmö or had died in the city. Since all roentgenograms were available, all other fractures that this group of patients had sustained up to 1990 were included. Data were compared with an age- and gender-matched control group with respect to location and types of fractures. The group with previous tibial shaft fractures had an increased incidence of all sorts of fractures. When comparing the risk of sustaining new fractures in the previously fractured limb with the uninjured side, only a statistically insignificant tendency toward more fractures was found. A similar tendency was observed in fractures of the upper limb. Therefore, remaining osteopenia in the injured limb after tibial shaft fracture is not associated with further fractures; rather, this group of patients were more fracture prone in general.