Purpose: To determine recovery rates of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in terms of functional status and health-related quality of life (HR-Qol) compared to the general population, as well as mortality rates and reintervention rates in patients with Young and Burgess (YB) classified pelvic ring injuries.
Methods: This cohort included patients with YB classified pelvic ring injuries in a level 1 trauma centre between 2007 and 2024. Dutch Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment subscales were used to evaluate functional status, and the Dutch version of the EuroQol-5D 5L was used to assess HR-Qol. Outcomes were compared to normative data of the Dutch population. Patient-reported outcomes, mortality, and reintervention rates were reported for each YB classification. Full recovery was defined as reaching the lower level of the 95% confidence interval of the normative data in all outcome measures.
Results: PROMs were available for 346 (75%) of the eligible patients. The median follow-up time was 2.2 (IQR 3.6) years. The following rates of full recovery were observed: lateral compression (LC)1 = 41%, LC2 = 46%, LC3 = 11%, anterior posterior compression (APC)1 = 36%, APC2 = 33%, APC3 = 40%, vertical sheer (VS)=31% and combined mechanical injury (CM) =27%. The highest 30-day mortality rates were found in LC3 (19%), APC3 (16%), and VS (12%) injuries. LC3, APC3, VS, and CM injuries had the highest reintervention rates due to pain or discomfort.
Conclusion: Patients with LC1, LC2, APC1, APC2, and APC3 had comparable outcomes to the general population, while LC3, VS, and CM injuries had worse outcomes. LC3, APC3, and VS injuries had the highest mortality rates within 30 days of the initial trauma. LC3, APC3, VS, and CM had slightly higher levels of treatment revisions or removal of osteosynthesis material.
Copyright: © 2026 Therrien et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.