How you break your bone determines
what kind of break you get. For example, twisting
your ankle in a hole will make a different shaped break than jumping
from a roof onto your feet. Doctors use geometry
to describe these breaks. This geometry is important because some
shapes are more stable than others i.e. easier to
fix and have different prognoses for healing and times of healing.
Types of Fracture in our Diagram:
- Transverse
fracture - meaning straight across. The two ends tend to
stay together i.e. it's stable.
- Comminuted
fracture - meaning in many pieces. This is bad news as
the fragments will find it hard to stay together on their own. This
generally needs surgery using pins to keep everything together until
the bone heals.
- Displaced
fracture - meaning the bone ends are no longer touching.
This means they'll have to be manipulated back together before healing
will occur.
- Greenstick
or crush fracture - meaning the bone has not snapped,
it's been stretched or crumpled like soft chalk.
- Hairline
fracture - this is a small crack in the bone from a repetitive
action like running which is so tiny you may not see it on xray,
but it hurts! This has an excellent prognosis as the bone is midly
damaged. You'll just need to keep off of it for a bit.
One other
broad way of describing broken bones is whether the fracture is 'open'
or 'closed'. Open means that the the skin around
the broken bone has split open. Closed means the
skin is intact over the fracture. This difference is important because
open fractures need antibiotic cover and may need external
fixation to heal.
