What is Fracture Care?
When you break a bone, whether it’s a partial or complete fracture, you need expert orthopaedic fracture care to ensure it heals correctly. Fracture care is highly customizable, so your physician can tailor your treatment to address your specific needs.
If you think you’ve broken a bone, contact the team at Beaufort Orthopaedic Sports & Spine immediately.
What are the Signs of a Fracture?
Pain is a common symptom of a fracture, regardless of the severity of your injury. In the injured area, you also develop swelling, lose mobility, and see bruising or redness. You might notice a visible deformity around the injury.
What is Included in Fracture Care?
Fracture care involves several steps, starting with diagnosis and ending with rehabilitation to rebuild your strength, stamina, and flexibility.
- Diagnosis: Your provider at Beaufort Orthopaedic Sports & Spine begins by examining your injury, ordering X-rays, and confirming that you have a broken bone. Only a small number of severe fractures break your skin, and many injuries cause pain, swelling, and bruising.
- Alignment: If necessary, your physician corrects the alignment of your broken bone. In severe cases, they complete this process during surgery and use pins to secure your bone in the correct position while it heals.
- Stabilization: After your doctor repositions your bone, they apply a cast or splint to stabilize your bone and keep it still and protected while it heals. Depending on the severity of your condition, you might need to wear your cast or splint for 4-10 weeks.
- Healing: Once your broken bone is set and stabilized, you have to wait for your bone to knit back together. Factors including the severity of your fracture, your age, diet, and other lifestyle factors determine how long your body needs for the bone to heal.
- Rehabilitation: When your doctor removes your cast, you need to have physical therapy to rebuild your strength, flexibility, and stamina in the surrounding muscles and connective tissue. While your bone needs to remain still to heal, your muscles and soft tissue become weak from the lack of movement.
The team at Beaufort Orthopaedic Sports & Spine is with you throughout the fracture care process. They can explain your injury and treatment options in detail so you can return to your regular activities quickly and safely.
Call Beaufort Orthopaedic Sports & Spine or make an appointment online today if you need expert fracture care.
