Broken bone is commonly known as bone fracture a d it occurs when an exorbitant amount of force is applied causing the bone to split or shatter. While some minor fractures lead to cracks and crannies, others may lead to complete breakage of the bones. Despite being hard, bones are formed in such a way that they can absorb pressure to only a certain extent, beyond which they break. Statistically, the incidence of broken bones are most common in children and in old age people.

Causes of Bone Fracture
Bone fracture can be caused due to a number of reasons; both intentional and accidental. Some of them include:
1. Accidents and injuries: Sports injuries, being hit by a car and tripping and falling are some of the typical episodes.
2. Old age: Diseases such as osteoporosis and brittle bone disease are common in aged people. As bones tend to become more fragile among the aged, they are at a greater chance of bone fractures.

Type of bone fractures
Primarily bone fractures are of four types, based on the way the bone splits. They are:

Complete fracture: This type of fracture refers to a complete breakage of the bone wherein the fracture may occur at various parts of the bone.
Incomplete fracture: In this type of fracture, the bone partially breaks instead of splitting entirely.
Compound fractures: This is a type of a fracture wherein the bone breaks past the skin. It is also known as an open fracture.
Simple fracture: In this type of a fracture, the bone breaks without causing an open wound on the skin.
Treatment of bone fractures
In case of a broken bone, the immediate course of action would be to reach for the first aid box. This can be done to stabilize the bone prior to hospitalization. Icing the injury, elevating the injured area to prevent further swelling and covering the wound with bandages are common measures. In many cases, people also make household splints (made of newspapers) to keep the bone stabilized. Hospitalization and especially surgery, can be also opted for in case of severe fractures.

Bone Fracture - Understanding the Types + Causes

Breaking a bone is, needless to say, a painful experience. But, when people have their broken bone put in a cast, they tend to forget about it until it comes out. This is quite wrong! A person would want to be up and running but does not find that the hand or the leg as it has been cast up. For weeks, the person's hand or leg barely moves and also shrinks up quite a lot!

There is a lot of pain, not only due to shrinkage when a fracture occurs. The occurrence itself causes what is known as acute pain. Then, for some weeks, the sub-acute pain just seems to persist, to the person having the fracture. The reason for this is the fact that the bone and the soft tissue are in the process of healing.

Chronic pain is a worry as it does not go away even after the healing process has ended. In order to make sure that there is a quick recovery and there is no chronic pain which is experienced at all, some of the proverbial leaves need to be taken out of the book of physiotherapy.

To start with, sometime between a fortnight and a month after the injury or the bone break has taken place, the doctor will wish to see some movement in the soft tissue that has broken around the bone. The great advantage of this is that while it may be a little bit of effort and time involved, there are great benefits by the way of less pain and swelling as the blood flows as normally as is possible.

If such movements are not done, a person can have related soreness, which can be even more of a pain! An example of this would be a broken foot or ankle causing the stiffness of the knee. When a person is already in pain, adding to his or her trouble makes no sense at all, does it?

Post one month mark, the physiotherapist would want to see more functioning so that the normal levels can be attained. A person who has a fracture should not despair as if he or she is willing to stick to the schedule given by the physiotherapist and perform all the exercises that have been set out, he or she will be back at the normal level much sooner than would have been expected!

Also, getting active again will reduce the risk of a repeat injury, and that is enough justification to do so!

What To Expect When Recovering From Broken Bones?

Sports injuries are a common problem, where various types of musculoskeletal injuries can occur during the physical activities. These injuries can either be acute or chronic in nature. In athletes, such injuries can pose as a risk to their careers, which makes it essential for the physicians to provide the most appropriate treatment. It is mandatory to provide a prompt, safe and quick treatment that can restore the athlete s preinjury level of participation in sports.

Various treatment approaches are present for treating sports injuries. The use of intra-lesion blood injection is being made for addressing the musculoskeletal injuries. An easy and minimally invasive method of using concentrated autologous growth factors in treating sports injuries is the use of platelet rich plasma (PRP). It is a fraction of the blood plasma that contains a higher concentration of platelets than normal plasma, along with growth factors.

PRP is used in the treatment of both soft tissue and bone injuries. Growth factors have a positively influencing effect on the healing process of connective tissue components.
There is a huge difference between the anatomy and functions of tendons, ligaments, muscles and joint capsules. Hence, the site of injection of PRP also varies.
The cellular tension in the tissue and the collagen structure is affected after the administration of PRP.
Use of PRP is popular in the treatment of an Achilles tendon. For injecting PRP, an ultrasound scan is done, the site of injection is accurately identified and then PRP is administered.
Proper location of the site of injury and deciding the accurate injection zone prior to the injection of PRP makes it easier to facilitate treatment and eliminate discomfort.
Administration of PRP should be considered secondary to physical therapy and other conservative means of treatment.
Enthesopathy is a discomfort in the area where the attachment of tendons, ligaments and the articular capsule is present. The use of PRP is increasing in the treatment of this condition. It has an inflammatory nature and presents as epicondylitis or capsulitis.
Studies have proved that PRP is an effective alternative to injection of steroids for an anti-inflammatory effect. Steroids majorly provide only symptomatic relief, whereas PRP is more definitive.
PRP has also found an increased use in the area of surgical procedures of knees. It is used to increase the efficiency of the healing grafts placed in the knee during reconstructive surgeries.
For treatment of bone injuries, use of PRP has shown an improved quality and rate of bone healing. Even in cases of an infected injury, PRP aids in healing efficiently.
No known side effects or complications after use of PRP have been observed, which makes it a sought after option in management of sports injuries.


Platelet Rich Plasma In Sports Injuries

Spinal fractures occur as a result of an injury or dislocation of the bony vertebra. This causes the bone fragments to pinch and damage the spinal cord. Fractures can occur anywhere along the spine but the most common site of fracture is the lower back.

What causes spinal fractures?

Spinal fractures are often a result of the following-

  A sudden traumatic injury
  A high-velocity accident
  Falling from a height
  Sports injuries
  Spinal instability
  A whiplash

Types of spinal fractures:

Spinal fractures are classified into three categories, such as the following-

  Compression fracture - If you exert excessive pressure on the vertebra, it will break. This type of fracture occurs when the bones in the spine become fragile or weak to the extent that they easily crumble. People living with osteoporosis, certain types of cancer or tumours are prone to a compression fracture.

  Dislocation - When the discs and/or ligaments linking the vertebrae is torn or stretched, the bones may dislocate or come out of alignment.

  Fracture-dislocation - Torn ligament and broken bone lead to this condition. A fracture-dislocation is a debilitating condition and often requires surgical intervention.

Symptoms of spine fractures:

Following an accident or an injury, you can tell if you have ended up fracturing your spinal column by identifying these symptoms-

  Excruciating pain
  Tingling sensation
  Numbness
  Muscle spasm
  Swelling of the muscle
  Sudden onset of back pain
  Restricted spinal mobility
  The pain worsens if you walk or stand for long
  Deformity or disability of the spine

How are spinal fractures treated?

Spinal fracture treatment begins with administering pain-management drugs and medications to ease the symptoms, and stabilization methods to prevent injury. Depending on the nature of the fracture, your doctor may follow these lines of treatment-

  Fusion and instrumentation - These are surgical procedures to cure unstable fractures. Fusion refers to the joining of the vertebrae using a bone graft along with hardware such as hooks, rods, plates, or pedicle screws. The bone graft joins the vertebrae below and above to form a solid piece of bone.

  Kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty - These are minimally invasive procedures, wherein the surgeon injects bone cement into the fractured body through a needle. During kyphoplasty, the surgeon first inserts and inflates a balloon to expand the compressed vertebrae and then fills it with bone cement.

Spinal fractures are an extremely uncomfortable and painful condition to live with. It can hinder your day-to-day activities and affect your quality of life. It is imperative that you seek immediate treatment if you end up with fractures or dislocation of the spine.

Spine Fracture - How Can You Get It Fixed?

Fractures are simply a break in a bone. They can be caused due to injury, (traumatic fractures) or a pre-existing condition like osteoporosis that causes weakening of bones (pathologic fractures). There are many ways to classify fractures. All fractures fall into the major categories of simple and compound fractures. Simple fractures are fractures where bones remain inside the skin and don t jut out. They are also called closed fractures.

Compound fractures, also called open fractures, are broken bones that penetrate through the skin. These types expose the bone and deep tissues to the environment. Compound fractures are more serious of the two. The healing here may be affected due to deep infections for which antibiotics need to be used. There are many different sub types of fractures and we re only going to skim through them here.

Comminuted fractures: Severe fractures in which a bone breaks into several smaller pieces.
Avulsion fractures: A small piece of bone is completely torn off from the main bone due to fierce pulling off a part of the body.
Other types of fractures are characterised by the many different angles the bone breaks into like transverse, oblique and spiral fractures.

Diagnosis
When a bone is broken there are symptoms like swelling that doesn t subside on its own and pain. In such a case it s imperative that one goes to a doctor for a diagnosis. Doctors can usually recognise most fractures by examining the injury and taking an X-ray. The X-ray also provides a clear idea about the type of fracture and the degree of displacement of the bone. And, it s important that the patient doesn t wait too long before approaching a doctor. This is because bones begin to heal very quickly after a fracture and the bone tissue will heal using any tissue available. This can lead to a misalignment of broken pieces of bone and cause disability and loss of function.

There are cases when X-ray may not show a fracture. This is especially common in fractures in the hip and wrist in older people. For diagnosing these, doctors will get some other tests done such as a computed tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or a bone scan.

Treatments
Fractures have to be treated by doctors. The doctors set the fractured bones in their proper place and hold them there so that they can heal. Setting a bone is called "reduction." Reduction without surgery is called "closed reduction." But if the fracture is serious, it s going to require surgery with bone repositioning, called open reduction.

In extreme cases, pins, plates, screws, rods, or glue are used to hold the fractured bones in place, inside the body. Once the bone abutment has been treated, the bone is immobilised to allow the broken pieces to heal. In most cases, the fractured part is set in a rigid cast. The fractured ends of the bone can be fixed into place using metal pins connected to an external frame. This is removed after the bone has healed.

Fractures - How To Diagnose Them?

When you experience any kind of bone and joint pain, you may be wondering what the best remedy might be to get relief. Some people ignore the pain, and it worsens, while others take over-the-counter medicines. However, the best remedy for bone and joint pain is to visit a pain management specialist. The field of pain management has evolved over the last twenty years. Nowadays, there are dedicated pain management specialists who are experts in treating bone and joint pain.

Here are 3 reasons to consult a pain management specialist for bone and joint pain:
1. Pain management specialists are trained especially for understanding any kind of bone or joint pain. They undergo special training based on bone and joint pain management and thus know how best to recognize and treat such pains.

2. Pain management specialists have a multidisciplinary approach towards treating bone and joint pain. The aim of pain management is to provide overall treatment and pain management specialists know about the best ways to take care of joint and bone pains. Pain management involves interventional procedures, psychological therapies, medication management and physical therapies. Pain management specialists also provide you with lifestyle modification remedies and assign you exercise schedules and diet plans. Alternative medicines like acupuncture and massage therapies are also provided by pain management specialists.

3. Pain management specialists cooperate with you and come up with the best solution for your bone and joint pain. Pain is such an aspect, which has no fixed cure and the remedy varies from person to person and depends on the nature and severity of the pain. Thus everyone should receive a personalized treatment, which is most suitable to cure the pain that has occurred to them. Pain management specialists work with patients, discuss a lot and come up with the best treatment procedure, which would complement the patient. For example, a neurostimulation device can be prescribed to a patient who suffers from complex regional pain syndrome and did not have success with other treatment procedures. In many patients with a shattered spinal disc, pain management specialists prescribe injections, which work effectively to give relief and treat the condition.

A pain management specialist can make the best assessments on bone and joint pain. Being trained especially in bone and joint pain management, you can bank upon pain management specialists to receive the best treatment for your bone or joint pain.

3 Reasons to See a Pain Management Specialist for Bone and Joint Pain

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