Fractured Femur – A Birth Injury!

Abstract

Birth injuries are an important medico-legal issue. It is a wide held belief that caesarean section is a safe mode of delivery. However, in certain difficult cases, injury may be sustained by the newborn as a result of the mechanics of delivery. Some of these less common injuries can be easily missed at birth leading to significant late morbidity. If diagnosed and treated in time, the outcome is usually good. This is a case report of fracture shaft femur in a newborn delivered by caesarean section. Such injuries are frequent when the mother has uterine myomas, severe oligohydramnios, breech presentation, diabetes and carrying large or very small fetus or when the fetus suffers osteoporosis secondary to copper deficiency, etc. Fracture femur should be one of the suspected birth injuries in any neonate born even to healthy mothers if he cries excessively and is unable to move his limbs normally.