Kenneth Vercammen (732) 572-0500

2053 Woodbridge Ave. Edison, NJ 08817

Ken is a NJ trial attorney who has published 130 articles in national and New Jersey publications on litigation topics. He was awarded the NJ State Bar Municipal Court Practitioner of the Year. He lectures for the Bar and handles litigation matters. He is Past Chair of the ABA Tort & Insurance Committee, GP on Personal Injury and lectured at the ABA Annual Meeting attended by 10,000 attorneys and professionals.

New clients email us evenings and weekends go to www.njlaws.com/ContactKenV.htm

Monday, July 21, 2008

Fractures and Broken Bones in Accidents

Is it a Fracture or a Break? Despite what you may have heard, a broken bone is not worse than a fracture, they both mean the same thing. In fact, the word fracture, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is defined as "the act of being broken." There are different types of fractures and broken bones, but these words mean the same thing!. See http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/otherfractures/a/fracture.htm

Fractures happen because an area of bone is not able to support the energy placed on it (quite obvious, but it becomes more complicated). Therefore, there are two critical factors in determining why a fracture occurs: * the energy of the event

* the strength of the bone

Treatment of Broken Bones

Fracture Treatment Bone is constantly in a state of turnover, even when not damaged or injured. We continually absorb and replace the cells that make up our bones. Because of this natural turnover, the process of healing bone also comes about quite naturally.

However, in order for a fracture to heal as well as possible, a good reduction, or placement, of the bones must be attained.

According to http://orthopedics.about.com, when doctors talk about reduction or a fracture, or reducing the broken bone, they are talking about improving the alignment of the broken ends of the bone. In most cases reducing a fracture involves placing the broken bone in a cast, often after a little pulling and tugging to achieve improved alignment. If the reduction cannot be satisfactorily achieved (meaning the alignment is either not adequate or not sufficiently stable), then a further procedure may be necessary.

This usually means surgery with fixation of the bone with pins, plates, screws or rods.

One potential complication of fracture treatment is either a mal-union or non-union of bone. This problem is more common in elderly individuals and in people who sustain more severe fractures. In the case of some fractures (e.g. hip fracture in elderly) the rate of non-union is high enough that instead of trying to heal the bone, the damaged segment of bone is replaced (e.g. hip replacement). See http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/otherfractures/a/fracture_2.htm

The treatment of a specific fracture is too complicated to be discussed in a general overview of broken bones, but depends on factors such as:

* Location of the fracture * Severity of angulation or deformity * Potential for healing * Other injuries * Age and activity level of the patient * And many more factors.... In order to understand your treatment, and the options you may have for treatment, you need to discuss your fracture with your doctor. Because treatments are individualized based on the patient, the x-ray appearance of the fracture, and the other factors mentioned, each case must be treated individually.

Underlying Problems The most common cause of fractures is due to trauma.

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