Compound Fractures, Compounding Complications

Описание: Each sporting season, someone suffers a gruesome bone break. During a basketball scrimmage this summer, Indiana Pacers player Paul George suffered a devastating compound fracture.

“It’s any fracture where the bone comes out the skin, which is a little more severe than a normal fracture because now you run the risk of infection. Which can be a pretty bad complication when trying to heal a fracture,” says Dr. James Bynum, who is an orthopedic surgeon on medical staff of Lee Memorial Health System.

Less than 10% of fractures are open, or compound. Most times the bones snap is the result of a catastrophic collision.

“Typically that type of fracture is associated with high energy like a car wreck or motor cycle wreck and we’ll even see collision sports like football and soccer. It’s pretty rare to see it in basketball,” says Dr. Bynum.

Having a compound fracture compounds the risk. At the time of the break, the exposure to air exposes the area to bacteria. That can complicate the healing process.

“If it even makes the tiniest little poke hole, because that means it’s seen the bacteria in the air, which could lead to infection. But the bigger the wound is, the more trauma there is to the exposed bone the more chance there is for complications such as infection or poor healing in the leg,” says Dr. Bynum.

Depending on the severity and location, many compound fractures will need rods and hardware to repair the bone structure. Once in the healing stage, recovery is often more predictable than an injury to a tendon or ligament.

“Assuming he heals it without infection or other complications, he’ll probably have as quick or faster recovery than say if it was his ACL or other ligaments in his knees,” says Dr. Bynum.

Treated quickly and properly, a bad break can still have a good outcome.

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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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