INTRODUCTION

4 PROPOSAL – Traditional Bone Setting & Complications in Cape Coast

INTRODUCTION

Bone fractures occur when a person breaks a bone. The soft tissue surrounding the bone also

stands the possibility of injury. Fractures are mostly caused by sports injuries, motor accidents, and domestic accidents such as slips and falls (Parmet et al, 2004) [1]. Fractures are

generally characterised by difficulty in using the limb, swelling, severe pain and a noticeable

twist or bump at the affected area.

Bone fractures take many forms depending on the nature of the fracture. A primary

classification for bone fractures is based on whether they are closed or open fractures (Parmet et al, 2004) [1]. Closed fractures refer to bone injuries that do not break the skin to cause a

flesh wound. Open fractures refer to bone injuries that break the skin to cause a flesh wound.

Thus, open fractures require treatment for the bone fracture as well as treatment for the flesh wound (Oryan et al, 2015) [2]. Bone fractures can also be classified as complete, displaced or

partial depending on the axis of the bone along which the break occurred.

In 2019, there were an estimated 178 million cases of bone fractures, indicating that bone fractures are a huge global public health issue (Wu et al, 2019) [3]. This is evidenced by the

increment in percentage of all disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost due to musculoskeletal disorders from 4.7% to 6.8% seen from 1990 to 2010 (Lyn et al, 2013) [4] .

However, despite the prevalence, there is a continued lack of research to track the incidence of bone fractures across the world, particularly in Ghana (Torgbenu et al, 2017) [5] .

The most common medically prescribed methods for treating bone fractures include closed

reduction and immobilisation, which are typically administered following physical examination and/or scans to fully assess the extent of the injury (McManus et al, 2008) [6] .