What Fractures Are Common With Falls? Learn about fractures caused by accidents and their implications. Find insights into prevention and treatment options for these injuries due to falls.

What Is A Bone Fracture?

In medicine, a broken bone is referred to as a fracture. Fractures typically occur as a consequence of traumas like falls, car accidents, or sports injuries. But some conditions and repetitive activities (like running) might increase your risk of fracture.

To heal a damaged bone, surgery can be necessary. Some patients just need a splint, cast, brace, or sling to help their bones heal. Your time to recover completely may vary depending on which of your bones is fractured, where the break happened, and what caused it.

Broken bones and bone fractures both refer to the same injury. They may be used interchangeably. Your healthcare professional will refer to your fractured bone as a particular sort of fracture when they diagnose it. Both bone fractures and bone bruises are wounds brought on by a powerful force striking your body. This can be due to a fall, a crash, or a sports injury

The difference is the degree of bone injury. As living tissue, your bones are susceptible to bruises in many of the same ways that your skin is. Bruising a bone is quite similar to bruising your skin, however, it takes far more effort. Your bones can bleed without being shattered if an impact is strong enough. After an injury, a bone bruise is caused by blood that is trapped under the bone's surface. When something strikes your bone hard enough to break, it results in a fracture. Compared to bone bruising, fractures are more serious injuries and can take longer to heal.

Common Types Of Fractures:

 Transverse Fractures 

Different forms of bone fractures include transverse fractures and transverse process fractures. Despite having similar names, these injuries are extremely distinct from one another. 

When your bone is shattered perpendicular to its length, it suffers from a transverse fracture. The fracture pattern is a line that goes against the direction of your bone and is straight. Any bone in your body can experience them, although they often affect longer bones following trauma like a fall or accident.

Spinal fractures include transverse process fractures. The bony protrusion on either side of your vertebrae, which make up your spinal column, is called the transverse process. 

They often result from traumas, much as any other kind of shattered bone. Some transverse process fractures are brought on by osteoporosis, which weakens your bones. Transverse fractures can occur anywhere throughout your spine, but your lumbar spine is where they most frequently occur.

 Oblique Fractures

Oblique fractures occur when the bone splits along the bone's longitudinal axis and across its width. The edges of the bone are often sharp and knife-like due to the form of the bone fracture. They can lacerate the skin around the fracture, turning it into a complex or open oblique fracture.

Besides requiring surgical reduction, oblique fractures are far more likely to have post-operative problems including infection or non-union. This kind of fracture is typically brought on by accidents, trauma, or even physical exertion. It can be brought on by landing on a bone at an angle or by applying stress to a bone at an angle, as would occur in a car accident.

 Impacted Fractures

When the force of the injury pushes the shattered ends of the bone into one another, it results in an impacted fracture. When the ends of the fractured bone are fragmented into several fragments, the fracture is referred to as comminuted.

 Comminuted Fractures 

A bone that has fractured three or more times is referred to as having a comminuted fracture. In general, a bone might be deemed extremely comminuted if it has more than four fractures. Comminuted fractures include a complete split of the bone. The long bones of the arms and legs are frequently affected by comminuted fractures. They are accompanied by discomfort and restricted motion in the broken bone. Depending on where the fracture occurs, nearby tissue or organs may also be harmed.

If a fragment of bone enters the pleural space of the lung, a comminuted fracture of one or more ribs may result in a pneumothorax. Extreme comminuted fractures can result in internal bleeding. This raises the pressure in the nearby muscles and causes compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome is a painful disease where the pressure inside the muscles rises to dangerous levels; if unchecked, it can kill the tissue around it.

Older Adults And Falls

Millions of seniors, or those 65 and over, fall each year. In reality, more than one in four seniors fall each year, yet fewer than half report it to their doctor. Once you fall, your odds of falling again are doubled. Most falls don't result in injuries.

One in five falls can result in a fractured bone or head trauma. A person may find it challenging to move about, carry out daily tasks, or live independently as a result of these injuries.

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