Objectives

To identify differences in emergency department (ED) pain-care based on the type of fracture sustained and to examine whether fracture type may influence the more aggressive analgesic use previously demonstrated in older patients.

Design

Secondary analysis of retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Five EDs (four academic, one community) in the United States.

Participants

Patients (1,664) who presented in January, March, July, and October 2009 with a final diagnosis of fracture (774 long bone [LBF], 890 shorter bone [SBF]).

Measurements

Primary-predictor was type of fracture (LBF vs. SBF). Pain-care process outcomes included likelihood of analgesic administration, opioid-dose, and time to first analgesic. General estimating equations were used to control for age, gender, race, baseline pain score, triage acuity, comorbidities and ED crowding. Subgroup analyses were conducted to analyze age-based differences in pain care by fracture type.

Results

A larger proportion of patients with LBF (30%) were older (>65 years old) compared to SBF (13%). Compared with SBF, patients with LBF were associated with greater likelihood of analgesic-administration (OR = 2.03; 95 CI = 1.58 to 2.62; P  < 0.001) and higher opioid-doses (parameter estimate = 0.268; 95 CI = 0.239 to 0.297; P  < 0.001). When LBF were examined separately, older-patients had a trend to longer analgesic wait-times (99 [55-163] vs. 76 [35-149] minutes, P  = 0.057), but no other differences in process outcomes were found.

Conclusion

Long bone fractures were associated with more aggressive pain care than SBF. When fracture types were examined separately, older patients did not appear to receive more aggressive pain care. This difference should be accounted for in further research.