Preliminary report of March Fractures in Infantry Soldiers of Korea - About 15 (19cases) march fracture patients -

한국 보병에서 발생한 중족골 행군골절 양상의 예비적 보고

Stress or march fractures among military personnel, especially recruits, has been appreciated for many years. According to the classical references, the second metatarsal was one of the first sites identified as a focus for march fractures and radiological evidence of fracture appeared as late as several weeks. The purpose of this study was to document the clinical feature of march fractures in Korean infantry soldiers. From 1997 to 1998, at one infantry medical company of OO infantry corps in Korea, 15 (19cases) patients with march fracture were detected among infantry soldiers. There were some different finding in the fracture site and its clinical features from the previous foreign reports. 1. There were pain and local swelling in all cases as clinical manifestation. By physical examination, direct point tenderness on the location of the fractured metatarsal shaft was characteristic. 2. On roentgenographic examination, cortical fissuring or break was seen one week after onset of symptoms and external callus was seen from two weeks or at the least four weeks. Oblique view was more useful than AP view in the diagnosis of march fractures. 3. The third metatarsal was the most frequently involved site(7 cases, 48%). and the second metatarsal was Jess frequent(3 cases, 20%). This difference of frequent site with previous reports might be attributed to the relatively long shaft of the third metatarsal, but should be analyzed in further study. 4. The incidence of the development of march fracture was 1 per 104 infantry soldiers.