Fracture Care

Fractures are painful bone injuries that can leave you unable to use the affected area. The Orthopedic Trauma Surgeons of Northern California team in Carmichael, California, specializes in fracture care, delivering unmatched outcomes to patients requiring urgent surgery. The highly skilled team members use advanced techniques and technologies to repair even the most complex injuries. 

Why would I need fracture care?

A fracture is a broken bone. While bones don’t flex much, they can bend a little under pressure. But excessive force breaks them. A transverse fracture breaks the bone straight across, while an oblique fracture is at an angle. The bone sometimes cracks without breaking completely.

Fractures can be nondisplaced, where the bones stay aligned, or displaced, where they move out of position. Nondisplaced fractures often don’t need surgery. Many displaced fractures are suitable for manual realignment (closed reduction) before applying a cast. But more severe fractures usually require surgery.

The Orthopedic Trauma Surgeons of Northern California team specializes in surgery to repair fractures.

Which fractures require surgery?

Compound and comminuted fractures usually require surgery.

An open or compound fracture causes a broken bone or a blow to break the skin. The bone might protrude, or you might suffer deep-tissue damage that uncovers the bone. These injuries are usually excruciating and likely to become infected without prompt, expert treatment.

If you have a comminuted fracture, it means the bone has broken into at least three pieces. Severely comminuted fractures shatter the bones into many fragments.

What does fracture care involve?

Facture care can involve open reduction and internal or external fixation.

Open reduction is where your surgeon repositions the broken bones after exposing the injury. They use internal fixation like special screws or metal plates that attach to the bone’s outer surface. Your surgeon might hold some fractures together using rods they insert through the bone’s center.

During external fixation, your surgeon puts metal pins or screws into the bone above and below the fracture and connects them to a metal bar. The bar is outside your body, forming a stabilizing frame and holding the bones in position while they heal.

What is complex fracture care?

Complex fractures can require extensive reconstruction or joint replacement. The Orthopedic Trauma Surgeons of Northern California team uses advanced 3D imaging to assess the injury and create your fracture care plan. They might use external fixation to secure the bones until you’re ready for surgery.

Complex fractures often cause extensive soft-tissue damage. Debridement is the removal of dead tissue and wound cleaning before surgery. After debridement, the surgeons fix damaged blood vessels in the area and use the patient’s own tissue or donor grafts to repair the soft-tissue damage.