You might know that you had a fracture if you heard a bone crack or if part of your body looks like it’s bent out of shape. These fracture pictures should help illustrate the wide variety of ways broken bones can look.
Treatment may include surgery and/or splinting with immobilization until it heals. Eventually, physical therapy is an important part of recovery.
Keeping your ankle immobilized can be difficult. Using a pillow splint is a simple way to keep your ankle still without too much discomfort.
You have 14 finger and thumb bones in each hand (phalanges). If you break any of them, the pain can be excruciating.
Any fracture in your hand can lead to permanent problems with hand mobility if it isn’t treated promptly.
If your hand movement is impaired, you should get medical attention right away.
A deep wound over the fracture site might also have a yellowish appearance, which is fatty tissue on the edges of the laceration.
Open fractures should get the same broken bone treatment as any other fracture plus control of bleeding and wound dressing.
Sesamoid fractures can happen as a result of several different types of trauma—like dropping something heavy on your foot or jumping onto a hard surface—or they can happen over time from repeated physical pressure, such as due to work or sports.
This type of injury is often associated with sports. Sometimes they’re called a baseball finger or a football finger.
If the tendon is stretched and not torn, a mallet finger can be treated with a simple splint to keep the finger straight until the tendon heals. If the tendon is torn or the bones are broken, surgery may be required.
This is one of those broken bones that usually elicits a reaction when you see it. This sort of image may even make you cringe and say, “Ouch!”
Splinting the broken wrist can relieve a lot of pain. A Colles fracture can cause damage to the median nerve, resulting in weakness and/or sensory loss.
Colles fractures usually heal with proper splinting, usually by immobilizing with a cast. In some extreme cases, surgery might be necessary.
Do not apply ice for more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time. Don’t put ice directly on your skin. Use a cloth barrier in between. Allow your skin to warm up again before putting the ice back on.
