What Happens If You Break A Bone And Don't Get It Fixed

What Causes Bones to Break?

Bones break due to injury or from a disease process.

From the crisis of a sports injury to an accidental autumn, people break bones in all kinds of ways -- ordinarily from some sort of touch on. Basic are strong and even have some give to them, but they take their limits, too. They can fifty-fifty bleed after a serious break. Diseases similar cancer and osteoporosis can too lead to breaks considering they brand your bones weaker and more fragile.

What Kind of Break?

Different bone breaks may be open or closed, partial or complete or displaced or non-displaced.

Doctors talk virtually cleaved bones, as well called fractures, with a few basic terms:

Open or airtight? Airtight, or simple, fractures don't pause through the peel. Open, or compound, ones do.
Fractional or complete? Partial breaks don't go all the fashion through the os. Complete breaks hateful the bone is in two or more than pieces.
Displaced or non-displaced? If the broken pieces still line up, it's a non-displaced pause. If they don't, it's displaced.

Types of Fractures

$Common bone breaks include transverse, stress fractures, oblique, greenstick and comminuted breaks.$

Common types of breaks include:

Transverse: breaks straight across the bone
Stress fracture: a very thin crack, also called a hairline fracture
Oblique: breaks at an angle
Greenstick: breaks on one side, only bends on the other--like a fresh stick from a tree
Comminuted: bone breaks into three or more pieces

Other types include compression fractures, which often happen in the spine, screw fractures, and avulsion fractures, when a tendon or ligament pulls off a slice of bone.

What It Feels Similar: Pain

Breaking a bone usually feels like an intense deep ache.

Sometimes, kids become small fractures and don't even know information technology. Other times, your trunk may be in daze so you don't experience anything at all--at first. Merely usually a broken bone means a deep, intense anguish. And depending on the break, y'all may feel sharp hurting, besides.

What It Feels Like: Other Symptoms

A broken bone may result in bruising, stiffness, swelling, warmth and weakness.

Aside from pain, your body sets off all kinds of alarms to tell you lot something's really wrong. You might feel chilly, light-headed, or woozy. You lot might even laissez passer out. Effectually the break itself, you might notice:

Bruising
Stiffness
Swelling
Warmth
Weakness

Yous may besides accept trouble using that torso part or see that the os doesn't look correct -- like it's aptitude at an odd angle.

Bone Repair: Pace i

Your body starts healing a broken bone within just a few hours of the injury.

Os repair begins within but a few hours of the injury. You lot get a healthy swelling effectually the break as a blood clot starts to form. Your immune system sends in cells that human action like trash collectors -- they get rid of small bone pieces and kill any germs. Likewise, y'all grow blood vessels into the surface area to aid the healing procedure. This footstep may last a week or two.

Os Repair: Step 2

A callus forms in the area of the broken bone while it's healing.

Over the next four-21 days, you get a soft callus around the cleaved bone. This is when a substance called collagen moves in and slowly replaces the claret clot. The callus is stiffer than a clot, but not equally strong as os. That'due south part of the reason you become a cast -- it holds the healing bone in place. If information technology moved, the soft callus could break and set dorsum your recovery.

Os Repair: Step 3

During the hard callus stage, your body forms new bone to the area where it was broken.

About 2 weeks after the break, cells chosen osteoblasts move in and get to piece of work. They form new os, adding minerals to the mix to brand the bone hard and strong as it bridges the cleaved pieces. This phase is called the difficult callus. It usually ends 6-12 weeks afterwards the pause.

Os Repair: Step 4

The bone remodeling phase is the final phase of bone healing after a break.

Now you're in the homestretch: bone remodeling. Hither, cells chosen osteoclasts do some fine-tuning. They break down any actress os that formed during healing so your basic go dorsum to their regular shape. When y'all reach this stage, returning to your normal activities really helps yous heal. This step may keep long after you feel amend, sometimes lasting up to nine years.

Treatment for Bones Breaks

Treating a bone break involves lining it up, immobilizing it while it heals and managing the pain.

Treatment for any break comes down to three basic steps:

Become the bone lined up in the right place.
Go along it from moving until information technology's healed.
Manage the pain.

For a basic break, your doctor may have to set the bone back in place. Then, you'll probably get a splint, brace, or cast to support your bone and keep you from moving it. Your doctor may also give you medicine for the pain.

Treatment for Complex Breaks

Multiple broken bones may require surgical treatment to heal.

For more than severe breaks, y'all may need surgery. Doctors might put in screws, pins, rods, or plates to hold bones in place and so they can heal correctly. Those parts may stay in place later you've healed, or in some cases, your dr. volition accept them out.

In rare cases, you may need traction, a system of pulleys and weights around your hospital bed that hold your bones in the right position.

Recovery: Weeks 1-2

Rest, eat a healthy diet and don't smoke to enhance bone healing.

An average recovery takes 6-8 weeks but tin vary based on the os, type of break, your age, and your overall wellness. During the first couple of weeks, yous'll demand patience and skillful old-fashioned self-care. This is where you ready the stage for healing. Follow your dr.'due south instructions closely and:

Don't fume.
Do any exercises your physician recommends.
Consume a healthy diet.
Balance the broken os as much every bit possible.

Recovery: Weeks 3-5

Exercise and physical therapy can help you regain muscle strength after you've suffered from a broken bone.

Your cast is disquisitional for healing, but subsequently simply a few weeks without movement, your muscles start to go weak and stiff. This is often the time when you start some very basic exercises or early on physical therapy. It helps ease stiffness, build muscle, and intermission downwardly scar tissue. You lot also get your head around moving this part of your body that'southward been in pain for a while.

Recovery: Weeks 6-8

Body hair and pale skin are common when you've had a broken bone.

This is oftentimes when the cast comes off. Your skin and hair take been in the dark under there and your muscles will be weak, so you may notice:

Body hair that's darker than usual
Skin that's pale or flaky
The body part you broke looks smaller -- it has less muscle

Yous'll get back to normal with time, and you lot may need more physical therapy. As yous start your regular activities, bank check with your doc to see if y'all have any limits on what you lot can do.

When to Call Your Doctor

There are certain times when you should call your doctor when healing from a broken bone.

As you lot heal, keep whatsoever eye out for signs of any issues. Call your doctor if you discover problems like:

Blue colour to your skin
Can't move your fingers or toes
Pain doesn't get better
Problems with your cast, like it cracks or feels besides tight or too loose
Signs of infection, such as redness, swelling, or discharge that smells bad
Tingling, numbness, pins and needles, or other odd feelings

First Aid Emergencies: What Happens When You Break a Os

Sources: Sources

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REFERENCES:

Cleveland Clinic: "Fractures."
KidsHealth: "The Facts Near Cleaved Bones," "Broken Basic."
Victoria State Authorities, Better Health Channel: "Bone Fractures."
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, OrthInfo: "Fractures (Broken Bones)."
Arizona State University School of Life Sciences, Inquire a Biologist: "Busy Bones."
Medscape: "Principles of Bone Healing."
American Higher of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, Human foot Health Facts: "Bone Healing."
Osteoporosis Canada: "Subsequently the Fracture: Information Virtually Pain and Practical Tips for Motion."
NHS: "Broken Arm or Wrist."
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: "Internal Fixation for Fractures."

This tool does non provide medical advice. See additional information: Disclaimer

THIS TOOL DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL Advice. Information technology is intended for general advisory purposes only and does not address private circumstances. It is non a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment and should non be relied on to brand decisions almost your wellness. Never ignore professional person medical advice in seeking treatment considering of something you lot have read on the MedicineNet Site. If you lot retrieve you may have a medical emergency, immediately call your doctor or dial 911.