Fracture Manipulation

Most of the time when a bone breaks the two ends move past or away from each other. This is because of the force that caused the damage pushing around the bones and because the muscles attached to the bones are pulling them away.

Bone FRACTURE MANIPULATION means tugging on the bones until they snap back into place. This technique is used in limb fractures like your leg or arm where the two ends are not badly shattered, just out of alignment.

While you're lying down, your bone doctor will stand at one end of the broken bone and an assistant at the other. They will then pull in a straight line until they feel the bones snap back in place or can see that the protruding bone ends have flattened. Of course you won't be howling through this in pain because you'll be sedated through chemicals given by an IV line or injection.

Once the bone doctor is happy with the flow of the bone, they'll then wrap a cast around it to hold it in place and send you for a new xray to compare with the first to make sure the ends are holding.

 

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