Introduction:

Motorcycle accidents are one of the leading causes of death and disability in Mexico’s young population. There are no local studies describing the pattern of AO-based injuries.

Objective:

Define the pattern and type of most common bone fractures in a Regional Hospital of High Specialty, from January to August 2017.

Material and methods:

Descriptive, cross-sectional, observational, quantitative study of 98 patients who suffered motorcycle accidents and who merited surgical orthopedic treatment (94% men, 6% women, average age 29.7 years).

Results:

The most frequent accidents included the following features: male drivers, motorcycle < 150 cm3, rural area, without helmet use (75.5%) collision against a moving object. The most common fractures corresponded to: tibia and fibula (28.9%), open fractures (52.3%), femur (25%) forearm (10.5%). Considering the AO classification the most common fractures were AO 42 B 3.3, AO 32A3.2 and AO 23B1.2.

Conclusion:

Motorcyclists use few protective measures. The injury pattern showed differences with what was reported nationally. According to the AO rating, much of the cases correspond to those of worst prognosis.