Abstract
The trauma pandemic disproportionately kills and maims citizens of low-income countries although the immediate cause of the trauma is often an industrial export of a high-income country, such as a motor vehicle. Addressing the trauma pandemic in low-income countries requires access to relevant research information regarding prevention and treatment of injuries. Such information is also generally produced in high-income countries. We reviewed two years’ worth of articles from leading orthopaedic and general medical journals to determine whether the scientific literature appropriately reflects the global burden of musculoskeletal disease, particularly that due to trauma. General medical journals underrepresented musculoskeletal disease, but within musculoskeletal disease an appropriate majority of papers were regarding trauma, in particular the epidemiology and prevention of injury. Orthopaedic journals, while focusing on musculoskeletal conditions, substantially underrepresented the global burden of disease due to trauma and hardly consider injury epidemiology and prevention. If orthopaedic surgeons want to maximize their global impact, they should focus on writing about trauma questions relevant to their colleagues in low-income countries and ensuring these same colleagues have access to the literature.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beveridge M, Howard A. The burden of orthopaedic disease in developing countries. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2004;86:1819–1822.
Boden SD, Einhorn TA, Morgan TS, Tosi LL, Weinstein JN. An AOA critical issue. The future of the orthopaedic surgeon-proceduralist or keeper of the musculoskeletal system? J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2005;87:2812–2821.
Grammatico L, Baron S, Rusch E, Lepage B, Surer N, Desenclos JC, Besnier JM. Epidemiology of vertebral osteomyelitis (VO) in France: analysis of hospital-discharge data 2002–2003. Epidemiol Infect. 2008;136:653–660.
Hakim H, Mylotte JM, Faden H. Morbidity and mortality of Staphylococcal bacteremia in children. Am J Infect Control. 2007;35:102–105.
Krug EG, Sharma GK, Lozano R. The global burden of injuries. Am J Public Health. 2000;90:523–526.
Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJ. Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001: systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet. 2006;367:1747–1757.
Mathers CD, Loncar D. Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030. PLoS Med. 2006;3:e442.
Mohan D. Road traffic injuries—a neglected pandemic. Bull World Health Org. 2003;81:684–685.
Murray CJ, Lopez AD. Alternative projections of mortality and disability by cause 1990–2020: Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet. 1997;349:1498–1504.
Peden M. World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2004.
Stanitski CL. Idiopathic. J Pediatr Orthop. 2006;26:560.
Suryati BA, Watson M. Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia in children: a 5-year retrospective review. J Paediatr Child Health. 2002;38:290–294.
Ulloa-Gutierrez R, Avila-Aguero ML, Herrera ML, Herrera JF, Arguedas A. Invasive pneumococcal disease in Costa Rican children: a seven year survey. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2003;22:1069–1074.
WHO Web site. Health Statistics and Health Information Systems: Disability Adjusted Life Years. Available at: http://www.who.int/healthinfo/boddaly/en/. Accessed May 21, 2008.
WHO Web site. Global Burden of Disease Project. Available at: http://www.who.int/topics/global_burden_of_disease/en/. Accessed May 21, 2008.
WHO Web site. Speed Management: A Road Safety Manual for Decision-makers and Practitioners. Available at: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9782940395040_eng.pdf.
Willcox PA, Rayner BL, Whitelaw DA. Community-acquired Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia in patients who do not abuse intravenous drugs. QJM. 1998;91:41–47.
Woolf AD, Pfleger B. Burden of major musculoskeletal conditions. Bull World Health Organ. 2003;81:646–656.
Yeh TC, Chiu NC, Li WC, Chi H, Lee YJ, Huang FY. Characteristics of primary osteomyelitis among children in a medical center in Taipei, 1984–2002. J Formos Med Assoc. 2005;104:29–33.
Zwi AB. Injury control in developing countries: context more than content is crucial. Inj Prev. 1996;2:91–92.
Acknowledgments
We thank the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons Carl Brighton Fellowship for stimulating discussion contributing to the completion of this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. Dr. Howard runs the Ptolemy project described in the accompanying article.
About this article
Cite this article
Noordin, S., Wright, J.G. & Howard, A.W. Global Relevance of Literature on Trauma. Clin Orthop Relat Res 466, 2422–2427 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-008-0397-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-008-0397-y