Paediatric Open Fractures Presenting to a Level 1 Trauma Centre: a 10 Year Epidemiological Study.

The epidemiology of paediatric fractures has been previously described, however there is limited data available on open fractures in this population. The purpose of this study was to investigate trends, mechanism of injury (MOI) and severity of paediatric open fractures and undertake an epidemiological study. All children ≤ 16.0 years presenting with open fractures were identified between 01/04/2013 and 01/04/2023. Those with craniofacial, thoracic and distal phalangeal fractures were excluded. Incidence was calculated based on those presenting within the local geographical region. Social deprivation was measured using the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). There were 208 open fractures with a median age of 11.0(q1 7.4-q3 13.4) years, and 153(74.6