Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be going through fractures.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero definals.com slash fractures

or in the orthopaedic section of the zero to finals surgery book. So let's get straight into it.

Let's start by talking about the types of fracture. A compound fracture is where the skin is broken

and the broken bone is exposed to the air. The broken bone can puncture through the skin in a compound fracture.

A stable fracture refers to when the sections of bone remain in alignment at the fracture site.

A pathological fracture refers to when a bone breaks due to an abnormality within the bone,

and we'll talk in more detail about

pathological fractures shortly. There are certain terms used to describe the way that a bone

has fractured. A transverse fracture is when the bone breaks straight across. An oblique fracture is when

the bone breaks at an angle. A spiral fracture is when the bone breaks at an angle.

A spiral fracture is when the bone breaks in a spiral shape.

A segmental fracture is when there's two breaks which means a segment of bone is separated at the fracture site.

A commenuted fracture is when the bone breaks into multiple fragments.

Compression fractures often affect the vertebrae in the spine, where the vertebrae is squashed.

A green stick fracture is when only one side of the bone has a fracture and the other side remains intact,

so there isn't a fracture that goes fully through the bone. A buckle or torus fracture is when both sides of the bone on

either side of the fracture compress into each other. And finally, a Salta Harris fracture or a growth

plate fracture is a fracture that affects the growth plates.

Green stick and buckle fractures typically occur in children rather than adults.

Salter Harris fractures only occur in children as adults do not have growth plates.

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