N 6 (197) 2025. P. 46–50

CLINICAL AND ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE OF LONG BONE DEFECTS AS A COMPLICATION OF COMBAT TRAUMA. ANALYSIS OF THE VOLUME OF THE DEFECT

S. O. Guryev, V. A. Kushnir, S. V. Hariyan, O. S. Tsybulsky

State Institution “Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Center for Emergency Care and Disaster Medicine of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine”, Kyiv, Ukraine
Municipal non-profit enterprise “Ternopil Regional Clinical Hospital” of the Ternopil Regional Council, Ternopil, Ukraine

DOI 10.32782/2226-2008-2025-6-6

Introduction. Modern combat operations are accompanied by large-scale health consequences, one of the most common of which is damage to the long bones of the skeleton. One of the most common consequences is injury to the long bones.

The aim of the research is to determine a describe the clinical and anatomical structure of defects in the long bones of the skeleton depending on the volume (size of the defect).

Materials and research methods. The study is based on an analysis of 115 cases of long bone defects resulting from combat-related trauma.

Results and their discussion. As a result of the data analysis, it was established that in the total body of the study, long bone defects with a size of 5.0–9.99 cm (41.31%) are most often found in patients with mine-explosive injuries, and defects ≥ 20.0 cm in size (2.17%) are the least common. In shoulder injuries, defects with a size of 5.0–9.99 cm (80.00%) prevail. Most often, defects of forearm bones have a size of 5.0–9.99 cm (57.14%). 50.00% of hip defects also have a size of 5.0–9.99 cm. 35.48% of shin bone defects have a size of 10.00–14.99 cm, and 33.87% – 5.0–9.99 cm. In addition, defects larger than 20 cm were found in our study in 3.23% of shin bone injuries.

Conclusions:

  1. The sizes of bone defects due to combat injuries are diverse. The largest proportion is in defects measuring 5.0–9.99 cm. 41.31% of defects have the smallest proportion with a size greater than 20 cm (2.17%).
  2. The occurrence of bone defects obviously depends on the segment of the lesion, and in all groups of defects, as in the general array, lesions of the lower extremities predominate.
  3. There is a tendency for bone defects to occur predominantly in the distal segments of both the upper and lower extremities, but this tendency is more pronounced in the lower extremities.
  4. The size of the bone defect obviously depends on the segment of impact as the mechanism of implementation of the striking agent in combat casualties.

Key words: defects, size, long bones, combat trauma, long-bone defects, bone loss, defect size, combat injuries, mine-blast trauma.

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