Curriculum · Musculoskeletal / Orthopedic / Rheumatology
Unstable pelvic fracture and the pelvic binder
What it is
An open book fracture of the pelvis is a discontinuity of the pelvic ring. The pelvis is one of the possible areas where a trauma patient can bleed, put as "Blood on the floor and four more places" and then listed as five: the chest as a hemothorax, the abdomen as solid organs or vessels, the pelvis, the long bones and the femur above all, and the retroperitoneum.
How it presents
The picture is polytrauma with a suspected pelvic ring injury and hypotension, that is, suspected pelvic instability with hemorrhagic shock.