Body mass index of patients with elbow and ankle fractures requiring surgical treatment.

To determine whether being overweight is a predisposing factor for some common fracture types caused by stumbling, slipping, and low-energy falls, the body mass index (BMI) of 4012 adult patients with acute extremity fractures requiring surgical treatment was compared with the age-specific and sex-specific BMI values obtained from a general population sample. The cross-sectional study included 317 patients with displaced fractures of the elbow joint (distal humerus, olecranon, or radial head) and 3695 patients with displaced malleolar fractures of the ankle. To delineate possible differences in BMI, 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the mean BMI values of age- and sex-specific subgroups were calculated. With the exception of two subgroups with elbow fractures, men aged 20-29 years and women aged 60-69 years, the fracture patients were found to have a higher mean BMI than the general population. Major contrasts emerged in middle-aged men with ankle fractures, the 95% CI for the mean BMI in the age group 50-59 years being 27.4-28.2 kg/m2 versus 25.7-26.3 kg/m2 in the general population. The conclusion of the study was that an increased body mass index was descriptive of patients with displaced fractures at the elbow and the ankle, and that overweight and obesity can be regarded as predisposing factors to these injuries.