Take These Steps Immediately If You've Just Broken a Bone

When falls or other accidents happen, often there’s some pain or mild injuries to the affected bones and joints. When you experience a break in a bone or joint, there are several things you need to do while waiting for medical attention.

Your bones, the literal framework of the body, are made of some of the toughest materials we naturally produce and help support organs, allow for basic movement, and supply our bodies with red blood cells. They’re also among the fastest-healing parts of the body we have, and they reconstruct themselves constantly over our lifetimes.

Fractures or breaks in bones can be both incredibly painful and physically limiting, and to reduce the damage such an injury can bring, there are key steps you should know when this unfortunate problem occurs. Let’s review the reasons why bones break, the types of breaks that happen, and what you should do to care for them after they take place.

Dr. Joseph Daniels and his experienced medical staff at Southwest Orthopedic Associates offer a variety of services to help with musculoskeletal injuries, including emergency care for broken bones, for the residents of Fort Worth, Texas.

Causes of broken bones

Fractures and breaks in bones refer to variations of the same problems and come from different forms of damage caused by:

Auto accidents

The impact of car collisions can damage the body in many different ways, and bone and joint damage happen frequently, with varying levels of severity.

Falls, slips, and trips

Hitting the ground or slamming into an object while falling, sleeping, or tripping can cause both soft-tissue damage and bone fractures.

Sports injuries

This can result from collisions with other players or objects, bad landings from jumps, or other factors that can cause significant bone trauma.

Types of breaks

In addition to different things causing bone damage, like fractures, the type of fracture varies with the cause, and includes:

Open: when either the bone breaks through the skin from the injury or the bone shows through from the damage

Closed: bone breaks with the skin remaining intact

Greenstick: an incomplete break where part of the bone is broken, leading to the other side of it bending

Transverse: a break that runs straight down the bone

Spiral: when the break spirals around the bone, common in twisting injuries

Oblique: a diagonal break in the bone

Compression: crushing of the bone that makes it flatter or wider in appearance

Comminuted: when the bone breaks into multiple pieces

Segmental: a bone broken into three or more pieces with a floating piece of bone

Avulsion: bones broken near ligaments or tendons, where the bone is pulled off either bit of joint tissue

Steps to care for them

If you suspect someone has a broken bone, especially if you see signs like intense pain, bruising, swelling, broken skin, protruding bone, and a visibly out-of-place joint, follow these steps until medical help arrives:

Keep the person calm
Examine closely for other possible injuries
Call for emergency help
Avoid breathing or probing the wound
Cover with a sterile dressing if any are available
Use ice packs to reduce swelling if possible
Work to prevent shock by elevating their feet above their head about 12 inches and covering them with a coat or blanket
Avoid moving them if the broken bone isn’t stable

Severe breaks or injuries in structural areas such as the hips, pelvis, spine, or upper leg should be kept as immobile and comfortable as possible until help arrives.

How you deal with this injury before help arrives can affect the outcome. If you or someone you know has a broken bone, contact Dr. Daniels and the Southwest Orthopedic Associates team as soon as possible.