Types of Fracture / Broken Bones Information

How you break your bone determines what type of fracture you get. For example, twisting your ankle bone in a hole will make a different break than falling from a roof onto your ankle. 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 and times to heal.

Types of Fracture:

1. Transverse fracture - meaning straight across. The two ends tend to stay together i.e. it's a stable fracture.
2. Comminuted fracture - meaning broken 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.
3. Displaced fracture - meaning the bone ends are no longer touching. This means they'll have to be manipulated back together before healing will occur.
4. Greenstick or crush fracture - meaning the bone has not snapped, it's been stretched or crumpled like soft chalk. Great prognosis.
5. 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 X-ray, 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 type of classification of fractures 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.

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