When a bone is broken or cracked it is called a fracture. Fractures can affect any bone in your body and can happen for lots of different reasons.

What causes fractures and who can get it?

Normal healthy bones are very strong and can take a lot of knocks and bashes without breaking. But sometimes the force put on a bone is too much and it breaks.

A fracture is usually caused by a big blow – like an injury from a serious fall or a car crash. Sometimes they are caused by repeated stresses and strains on a bone that cause it to crack; this is called a stress fracture.

Your bones are more likely to fracture when they have been made weaker by a disease. Conditions such as osteoporosis make your bones thin and weak and more prone to breaking.

What are the signs and symptoms of fractures?

There are lots of different ways a bone can break. It can snap in two, shatter into lots of different pieces, one bit of bone might break off, or it might break through your skin. So the symptoms of a fracture depend on how your bone has broken and how badly you are hurt.

Just after you break a bone you can go into shock and feel very faint and sick. This is because the pain can be very bad.

Other signs a bone is broken are:

• Pain, bruising and swelling around the joint or bone
• Not being able to move or put weight on the bone
• The bone being bent at a strange angle

Sometimes a broken bone can pierce through organs and muscles inside your body. This can cause internal bleeding and other more serious problems that need urgent medical attention.

How is it normally diagnosed and treated?

If you have the symptoms of a fracture a doctor should be able to diagnose you straight away.

Once you’re in hospital other tests will be done to check exactly where your fracture is and how bad it is. This will include an X-ray and maybe an MRI or CT scan to look at your bone in more detail.

The first step of treating a broken bone is to put the pieces back in the right place. This is called aligning. Then, once all the bits are in the right place, the bone needs to be held in that position until it heals. This is called immobilisation.

There are a few different ways a bone can be immobilised. In most cases a cast made of plaster, plastic or fibre glass is used to hold your limb in one position. Sometimes steels rods and pins need to be fixed to a bone to hold lots of different pieces in place.

Once a broken bone is aligned and immobilised it starts to heal. Bone cells start to grow around the fracture and eventually mend the break. This process can take anything from two to eight weeks depending on which bone you have broken and how bad the fracture is.

Sometimes after the fracture is mended you will need physiotherapy to get your full strength and movement back.

Can it be prevented?

The best way to prevent fractures is to develop and maintain healthy bones by:

• Eating a good diet: Make sure you have enough calcium in your diet from things like milk, cheese and yoghurt – this helps to build strong bones. Getting enough vitamin D is also important because it helps your body to absorb calcium.
• Taking regular exercise: Your bones get stronger when you exercise regularly. This is even more important as you get older.

When should I seek medical help?

If you think you have fractured a bone you should get medical help straight away.

Looking forward

It can take several weeks to fully recover from a broken bone but most fractures heal well and don’t leave any lasting problems.

Some fractures refuse to mend and need surgery. Others cause your bone or bone marrow to become infected and need to be treated with antibiotics.

Very occasionally fractures can cause a permanent loss of movement or stiffness in your joints but this is rare.

Further help and advice

If you would like to know more about breast cancer, please ask your doctor or contact one of the support organisations below.

• Contact NHS Direct
• The Brittle Bone Society give support to people who suffer from conditions that weaken their bones.

Last reviewed by Great Ormond Street Hospital: 12 June 2008

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