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Up to a third of women who suffer from an outer forearm fracture could be victims of domestic violence, according to an alarming new study.
Researchers say broken ulna bones – which connect from the little finger to the elbow – often result from self-defense or from a fall – and could offer a telltale sign of abuse in the home.
Dr. Bharti Khurana, director of emergency musculoskeletal radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, led the preliminary research that is being presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, ahead of review by pairs.
“I never correlated it with intimate partner violence until recently,” Dr. Khurana said in a press release.
Electronic records of ulna fractures in six regional hospitals identified 62 women between the ages of 18 and 50, for an average age of 31. an intimate partner (although some have said the injuries were not deliberate). The rest were linked to traffic accidents and other known falls, such as a patient who crashed into a tree while skiing.
Homelessness was also associated with such fractures.
“The radiological features we were looking at were the location of the fracture, the pattern of the fracture in terms of rupture and the displacement of the fracture,” said co-author Dr. David Sing, a Boston orthopedic surgery resident. . Medical Center.
“Of all of these things, what we typically saw was a minimal displacement fracture, which means the bone is completely broken but hasn’t changed significantly,” he added.
However, official screening for domestic violence has been done in just 40 percent of confirmed and suspected cases, and the researchers say their results suggest such tests should be done more frequently, albeit discreetly.
X-rays and skeletal imaging of ulna injuries alone were sufficient to accurately report 75% of confirmed abuse cases.
“Careful analysis of previous imaging exams can also help radiologists confirm their suspicion of intimate partner violence,” said Dr Rahul Gujrathi, another co-author and radiology researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Researchers also acknowledged that rates of domestic violence peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. In New York City alone, allegations of domestic victimization have more than doubled since before the coronavirus outbreak.
Now activists around the world are raising awareness, including Pope Francis. In honor of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, he tweeted: “Too often women are offended, abused, raped and forced into prostitution. . . If we want a better world, a house of peace and not a court of war, we must all do much more for the dignity of every woman.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline is accessible at 800-799-SAFE (7233). More information is available at TheHotline.org.
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