It can happen in an instant – a car accident, fall, or sports injury – and your kiddo can suffer a broken bone. Fractures, another name for broken bones, can even happen over time with repetitive motions.
Nearly half of all children in the United States fracture a bone during childhood. Almost 25 percent of boys and nearly 15 percent of girls break multiple bones before becoming adults.
Generally, we classify fractures in a few ways including:
- Bone that is broken.
- Cause of the broken bone.
- Displaced or non-displaced.
- Open or closed.
- Pattern of the break in the bone.
Common Bones Broken During Childhood
Arms are made up of three major bones:
- The radius is the bone between the wrist and elbow on the thumb side of the arm.
- The ulna is the bone between the wrist and elbow on the pinky finger side of the arm.
- The humerus is the bone between the elbow and shoulder.
Wrist fractures are actually fractures of the radius, ulna, or both. These breaks tend to happen when your child falls forward and puts their hand out in front of themselves to break their fall.
Elbow fractures can involve the radius or ulna below the elbow or the humerus above the elbow. Freestyle BMX riding, skateboarding, and skating without elbow pads are frequent causes of elbow fractures.
Collarbone or clavicle fractures frequently happen when children fall sideways onto their shoulder or when they are struck on the shoulder during contact sports.
Legs are made up of three major bones:
- The femur is the thigh bone between the hip and the knee.
- The fibula is the lower bone between the ankle and knee on the outer side of the leg.
- The tibia is the lower bone between the ankle and the knee on the inner side of the leg.
According to orthopedic doctors (bone specialists), the femur is the most painful bone to break. The fibula and tibia bones are broken more frequently. Lower leg bones are usually broken during contact sports, skating, skiing, or snowboarding.
Causes of Broken Bones
Orthopedic doctors often classify types of fractures by their cause.
Avulsion fractures are caused by a ligament or tendon pulling small pieces of bone away from a larger piece of bone. They happen in joints such as ankles, elbows, fingers, knees, and wrists and can be mistaken for sprains or strains.
Stress fractures are caused by repetitive motion and overuse without adequate rest. They most frequently occur in the feet, ankles, and lower legs. Continuous stress weakens the bone until small, often microscopic, cracks form in the bone. Stress fractures are also called hairline fractures.
Compound and Simple Bone Breaks
You may hear your child’s healthcare provider refer to your child’s broken bone as a compound fracture or a simple fracture. Here’s what that means:
- Compound fractures are also called open fractures. Compound fractures occur when the broken bone pierces through the skin. Anytime the skin is broken, there is an increased risk of infection due to bacteria and germs entering the body. Antibiotics are prescribed to prevent the development of an infection in a compound fracture.
- Simple fractures are also known as closed fractures and are defined as a broken bone without broken skin.
Displaced and Non-Displaced Bone Breaks
A displaced fracture occurs when the broken ends of the bone are not aligned. Due to the misalignment of the bones, these fractures often appear as an obvious deformity. A healthcare provider will need to reduce or set the bone, which means they must put the broken ends back in alignment so the bone heals properly.
A non-displaced fracture occurs when the broken ends of the bone are still in alignment. These fractures will likely still have swelling but do not appear grossly deformed like displaced fractures.
Patterns of Bone Breaks
The pattern in which bones break can be divided even further between partial or complete bone fractures.
Complete Breaks
Comminuted fractures are caused by severe trauma, such as falls from extreme heights or severe motor vehicle accidents. They are injuries in which a bone is broken in at least two places, creating three or more bone fragments. Fortunately, these breaks are rare.
Oblique fractures are breaks in a diagonal angle across the bone. They occur when significant force is applied to the bone.
Spiral fractures are breaks in the bone that wind around the bone like a corkscrew or spiral staircase. They occur when the bone is broken with a twisting motion.
Transverse fractures are a type of complete fracture in which the bone breaks in a straight line perpendicular to the bone. They usually occur in long bones such as the clavicle, femur, fibula, humerus, radius, and tibia.
Partial Breaks
Buckle (torus) fractures are a type of compression fracture in which sudden, significant pressure is applied to the bone, causing a partial fracture that does not extend all the way across the bone. They occur most frequently in children under 12 years of age during falls.
Greenstick fractures are incomplete breaks that cause a crack on one side of the bone but not on the other side. They are named greenstick fractures because of the similar response seen when a young, green twig is bent – it bends and cracks on one side but does not break in two. Greenstick fractures usually happen in children under ten because they have softer bones that are more likely to bend and not break.
Special Circumstances
Your child’s bones have areas at the ends of their long bones called growth plates. These growth plates have multiplying cartilage cells that harden into bone as they grow. The growth plates are softer than bone and are vulnerable to fractures called physeal fractures.
Growth plates can help your child’s broken bone heal faster, but bone breaking in the growth plate needs to be monitored closely to ensure proper healing.
Turn to KidsStreet Urgent Care
Concerned your child may have a broken bone? KidsStreet Urgent Care is here to help your kiddo heal and feel better fast!
Register online to visit one of our kid-focused clinics. You and your kiddo can conveniently wait at home or in your vehicle. We’ll text you when it’s time to head to the clinic.
KidsStreet loves walk-ins and welcomes them every day! However, we recommend registering online before your visit to reduce your in-clinic wait time. Walk-ins join the same queue as those who register online.