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?

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

The medical term used to describe a broken wrist is wrist fracture. The fracture might be in the 10 bones, which make up the wrist or in the radius. Some fractures can be serious while others may be tiny. The serious fractures make the bone unstable and these might require surgeries to cure. Open fracture is when the bone breaks and it breaks through the skin. This might cause an infection to the wounded area.

Causes
The most basic cause of a wrist fracture is injury. Any fall on your outstretched hand and you might have to nurse a fractured wrist. This type of fracture is common among sportsmen. If you are suffering from osteoporosis, then you have a high risk of getting a wrist fracture. Traumatic accidents may also cause severe wrist fractures.

Symptoms
The symptoms of a wrist fracture can be extremely painful. The pain escalates whenever you try to move your wrist or flex it, even if you are just flexing your fingers. Sometimes your hand or arm may even become extremely numb when you fracture the wrist. The muscles in the area become tender and swell up. It is almost impossible to move the wrist after it gets fractured. The fracture causes the wrist or rather the hand to appear deformed. The area around the fracture might even get bruise and a fractured wrist also affects the blood flow in the area. You might even injure your ligaments, tendons, muscles or nerves.

Diagnosis
To confirm and check the level of severity, you are generally asked to get an X-ray done. In order to get a more detailed look at the fracture, you might have to undergo CT or MRI scans as well. Usually to treat a fracture, you will have to wear a splint and move your hand as least as possible. But keep moving you're your fingers otherwise they might get stiff. Your doctor will inform you from when you will be able to move your wrist. Until then try to keep your movements to the minimal.

Causes and Symptoms of Wrist Fracture

A bone fracture occurs when a strong external force is applied on the bones causing it to break. It is an extremely painful condition that results in days of immobility and rest. There are several reasons which can result in bone fracture, some of them being:

1. Injuries caused in sports
Any sport requires and demands extreme physical exertion and participation. Being involved in any sport therefore automatically increases your risk of incurring injuries. Bone fractures therefore are mostly reported during sports.

2. Osteoporosis
Due to the deficiency of calcium, the bones of both men and women tend to get weak and more susceptible to fracture and breakage. It is one of the primary causes that lead to bone fracture.

3. Osteomalacia
This also refers to a condition wherein the bones become weak and brittle. Much like osteoporosis, osteomalacia too significantly contributes to instances of bone fractures.

4. Osteosarcoma
This is a rare form of bone cancer that most often develops either near the femur or near the shinbone. An instance of this form of bone cancer is most often found in children and weakens the bone, consequently leading to fractures.

Though there may be different causes of broken fractures, its symptoms remain similar. Some of them are-

1. Swelling
One of the most common symptoms of bone fracture is perceptible swelling. If any of your bone is fractured, that particular part will be visibly swollen.

2. Deformity
Bones give your body the shape it has, thereby, any fracture anywhere would inevitably manifest itself as a clear deformity of that particular part.

3. Extreme pain
It goes without saying that a bone fracture would entail excruciating and extreme pain. This pain sharply increases with mobility thereby necessitating complete rest.

4. Temporary loss of function
The part of the body where the bone is broken temporarily becomes dysfunctional. For instance, if the bone in your hand is broken, you will find it extremely difficult to move and do any work with it.

Causes and Symptoms of Bone Fracture

A broken wrist is known as a wrist fracture and it may occur due to a variety of causes starting from undue pressure on the wrist which can result in an injury as well as debilitating conditions like arthritis, which makes the bones and joints prone to fractures. There are also non displaced breaks, which are stable kinds of fractures and in which, the wrist remains in its place. Let us find out more about the kinds of fractures and the procedures for treatment of the same.

Type of Fracture: The wrist is basically made up of eight small bones that connect the two long arm bones, which are known as the radius and ulna and create the forearm. The broken wrist can take place in any of these bones. A hand surgeon will generally take a look at this kind of fracture and determine whether it is displaced, stable or open. As discussed earlier, a wrist fracture can be of various types. While a non displaced wrist fracture is a more stable kind that does not really require much more than rest or medication, a displaced wrist fracture is a non stable kind where dislocation happens.

Other Factors: There are a variety of other factors that will be taken into consideration in order to repair this kind of a fracture. To begin with, the Orthopaedic specialist will consider your age and the kind of job, hobbies and other kinds of activities that you indulge in. Also, the doctor will try to ascertain whether or not you are in good health on an overall basis. The presence of other injuries will also be taken into account for this kind of an injury in there has been a bike or car accident that has caused the fracture.

Treatment: The method of treatment will vary as per the considerations listed above. A padded splint may be installed in order to align and support the bones and wrist respectively, so that there is ample relief from the acute pain as well. Further, an unstable fracture will require a cast as to support the entire forearm and give proper rest to the region so that the bone can grow back together and get aligned again. Surgery may also be required for very severe cases, and pins, screws, metals and plates may also be used depending on the exact location and type of fracture.

Recovery: Remember to move your fingers as much as you can so as to prevent them from getting stiff while they are held up in a splint or a cast.
Hand therapy will be helpful in gaining back motion and function of the wrist.

Wrist Fracture Procedure - Facts You Should Know About 


A fracture separates a single solid object into two or more pieces due to pressure. In medical terms, a fracture refers to a broken bone due to some kind of external trauma. A crack in the bone, on the other hand, it does not cause a clean break in the bone, there is only a separation or discontinuity in the bone material.

A crack in the bone caused due to repeated stress is often called as 'hairline fracture'. Here are the basic differences between a crack and a fracture in the bone and how to treat them:

1. A crack or hairline fracture is rarely caused by a single injury. It is usually the result of bone fatigue, which may be caused due to repeated, concentrated stress over a long period of time and thus, it is also called as 'stress fracture'. Other bone fractures are almost always the result of sudden and severe force on the bones.

2. The skeletal system constantly remodels itself. The cells, known as 'osteoblasts' absorb calcium and secrete bone connective tissue. If a particular site is exposed to recurrent bouts of force (which are individually not impactful enough to cause a crack), over time the osteoblasts in that region malfunction and the crack appears.

Muscular exhaustion can also cause cracks in the bone. Fractures are caused due to sudden external single force trauma to the bone. Nutritional problems like deficiencies of Calcium, Phosphorus, vitamin D and excessive smoking decrease the bone mineral density and increase the chance of both cracks and fractures.

3. Symptoms of a crack are swelling, tenderness and sharp pain in the injured region and the symptoms worsen over time. A fracture has similar symptoms and might also exhibit an external physical distortion and makes it impossible to move that part of the body that where the bone is broken.

4. An MRI is often suggested for detecting the crack or crack-prone areas because an X-ray can only detect the crack after it widens somewhat or the bone starts paining because the rays cannot pass through the tiny gap in bone material. A fracture is easily detectable by an X-ray because the rays pass right through the break.

5. Complete rest for six to eight weeks is the most effective way of healing a crack. Using a walking boot in case of cracks in the leg bones in also helpful. Healing fractures require extensive medical intervention. Surgical techniques like bone grafting and the insertion of metal plates are used to reposition the broken bone.

Cracks VS Fractures

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