Prevalence of congenital anterior abdominal wall defects in the United Kingdom: comparison of regional registers.

of primary treatment under anaesthesia in the first 24 hours after admission to hospital. This group included the 8 fractures with bruising evident at initial presentation. Thirteen other fractures in this group (without evidence of bruising at initial presentation) had developed overt bruising by the time of definitive treatment within 24 hours of hospital admission. Sixteen fractures were reviewed later in the first week for various reasons (for example, change of plaster casts, remanipulations); 4 of these had developed local bruising. Four fractures were reviewed at three weeks when a plaster cast was removed. They were all undisplaced distal radial fractures that had not required manipulative treatment, and bruising was not evident in any of them. Thus 25 fractures (28%) developed bruising during the first week after trauma.