What are the Most Common Causes of Fractures?
The top causes of fractures include:
- Trauma: When you’re generally healthy and your bones are strong, it takes a significant force to cause a fracture. Traumatic fractures are often caused by sports injuries, car accidents, and falls.
- Osteoporosis: Osteoporosis makes bones weak and brittle. As a result, they can break with very little force. For example, you can sustain a fracture due to coughing. When osteoporosis affects vertebrae in your spine, you’re susceptible to compression fractures that flatten the vertebrae.
- Overuse Injuries: Stress fractures are small cracks in your bones caused by repetitive force or overuse. They’re most common in the weight-bearing bones of your lower leg and foot. A stress fracture can also develop when your bone is weak due to osteoporosis.
What Symptoms Indicate I Have a Fracture?
Fractures cause classic symptoms: pain, swelling, bruising, and difficulty using the affected body part. In a severe fracture, the bone may break through your skin, or the area may look deformed because the bone is out of place.
What are the Different Types of Fractures?
These are only a few examples of the different types of fractures:
- Stable fracture: Broken ends of the bone remain properly aligned
- Transverse fracture: Fracture line is horizontal
- Oblique fracture: Bone breaks on an angle
- Comminuted fracture: Bone breaks into three or more pieces
- Open or compound fracture: A wound penetrates down to the bone or the bone sticks out through the skin
A compound fracture is especially serious because an open wound increases your risk of infection.
What is a Nonunion?
When a broken bone is properly treated yet doesn’t heal, it’s called a nonunion. You’re more likely to have a nonunion when the bone lacks one or more elements needed for healing:
- Stability: The pieces of bone must be put into their proper position and held in place with a cast. Some fractures also require surgical placing with screws, plates, rods, and frames.
- Blood Supply: Blood delivers oxygen, stem cells, growth factors, and nutrients, which are all needed for healing.
- Nutrition: Fractured bones must have sufficient nutrients to heal, especially protein, calcium, vitamin C, and vitamin D.
If you have a fresh fracture that’s at risk for nonunion, your doctor at Orthocenter may consider using low-intensity pulsed ultrasound to promote healing. Should that fail to help, you may need a bone graft.
The team at Orthocenter includes a trauma-trained fracture specialist to guide your treatment. If you know or suspect you have a fracture, call the office for prompt help.
