TRAUMA & FRACTURE MANAGEMENT

Traumatic injuries are those sustained in a single incident, in contrast to chronic injuries like arthritis. Whether you have a broken bone, torn muscle, or ligament damage, your injury can be classified as a traumatic one if it was caused by a traumatic event like a car crash, fall, or by participating in sports.

AOI can assist in properly identifying and effectively managing your injury, as well as developing a treatment plan to swiftly restore your mobility. As skilled orthopedic surgeons, we can treat trauma and fractures of shoulders, elbows, hands, wrists, hips, knees, ankles, and feet.

Fractures

A fracture is any sort of discontinuity of the bone due to a break or crack. When a bone isn’t stronger than a force operating on it, it will fracture. While different bones will fracture differently, there are a few different categories into which all fractures fall:

• Open vs. Closed: an open fracture will be one in which the bone breaks through the skin, while in a closed fracture the bone remains cracked more or less in place. Open fractures are far more dangerous, since the wound can easily be infected.
• Compound vs. Simple: this is just another way to talk about whether or not a bone breaks through the skin, where a compound fracture is synonymous with open and simple with closed
• Displaced vs. Non-displaced: a displaced fracture means that the broken pieces of the bone have shifted out of their proper alignment so that the ends don’t line up correctly. In a non-displaced fracture, the bone retains its shape while being cracked or broken in some spot
• Comminuted fracture: a bone will be in more than two pieces in this kind of fracture

Clearly, some fractures are more serious than others, and a fractured thumb will affect you much differently than a fractured femur. The orthopedic experts at AOI are able to effectively treat any kind of bone fracture.

Other Traumatic Injuries

Soft-tissue injuries are also commonly sustained during a traumatic event. These are mainly classified as sprains and strains.

• Sprain: a stretching or tearing of a ligament which causes pain and swelling at the joint. This could occur when a joint is twisted beyond its normal range of motion or if the joint is exposed to too much pressure or force
• Strain: a stretching or tearing of a tendon or muscle which causes pain and swelling. These can happen when a muscle is taxed beyond what it is capable of doing or using the muscle in an awkward, unaccustomed motion

At AOI, we have experienced orthopedic doctors who are more than capable of assisting you with the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of your traumatic bone or soft-tissue injury.