Introduction:

as the population pyramid gets inverted, more active and longer lives are lived, geriatric patients with high energy trauma (HET) become more frequent; requiring more resources, getting worse results with more perioperative complications, coupled with a fragile state of health and osteopenia, make these fractures difficult to manage. With the hypothesis that the incidence of pelvic and acetabular fractures in the elderly due to HET is higher than that reported in the world literature, the research question was generated: What is the incidence of pelvic and acetabular fractures in the elderly due to HET, in a 5-year period?

Material and methods:

with the authorization of the Ethics Committee, an observational study of a retrospective cohort was carried out, using medical records, identifying the incidence of these fractures, surgically treated in our institution Clínica Las Vegas, Medellin, Colombia, a level III hospital, from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2021.

Results:

a cumulative incidence of 1.95 new cases per 100,000 person-years was calculated, a prevalence of 13.8%; resulting in a higher incidence and prevalence, confirming our hypothesis.

Conclusion:

treatment should be aimed at improving quality of life with stable fixation, identification and treatment of associated injuries, minimizing the risk of mechanical complications and prioritizing the reinforcement of preventive measures, also in the improvement of male role behavior, whom, as it seems, will keep carrying out risky activities despite their age.