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Fracture Care

Beacon Orthopedics has many orthopedic physicians that specialize in treating fractures to different parts of the body. In treating your fracture, our doctors will realign your bone, making sure the damaged tissue heals properly. This helps return function and strength to the injured body part as soon as possible.

Types of Fractures

There are many different types of fractures that our specialized teams treat, including:

  • Simple – a line fracture
  • Comminuted – the bone is broken into more than two pieces
  • Closed – the bone does not break the skin
  • Displaced – the bone becomes misaligned
  • Non-displaced – the bone is still aligned

Emergency Fractures

There is a difference between an urgent need and an emergent need. At the walk-in orthopedic urgent care, an orthopedic specialist will treat and set closed fractures. However, if the bone is protruding through the skin, we recommend seeking emergency treatment at ER. The emergency room staff will be able to treat the wound and may recommend you see an orthopedic specialist to set the bone.

If you aren’t sure if the bone is fractured, it may be a good idea to come into our orthopedic urgent care to have the injury examined.

Splints and casts are used on more basic fractures in order to immobilize the bone and allow it to heal properly. Traction is used to stretch the muscles and tendons around the bone so that the broken ends of the bone can align and heal correctly.

More complex fractures may require some form of stabilization. This involves using rods, plates, and/or screws to make sure the bone fragments stay in place throughout the healing process. The use of stabilization procedures allows the patient to start bearing weight and using the injured body part sooner than would otherwise be possible.

For severe fractures of longer bones such as the femur, tibia, and humerus a titanium rod may be placed in the hollow part of the bone to guide healing. Plates and screws are used for smaller bones around joints if the injury is serious enough.

Recovery

The time it takes for a fracture to heal depends on a number of factors including age, location and type of the fracture, as well as severity of the fracture. The more basic fractures typically take around six weeks to heal, while other more severe fractures could take up to three months. Getting full use of the injured body part back could take up to a year and require therapy to restore full strength and range of motion.

Whatever type of fracture you have, our team of orthopedic surgeons and physical therapists will get you diagnosed, treated, and back to normal as soon as possible.