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Recovery From Broken Bones

Margarita Gurevich

People can break a bone in their body as a result of a number of things – a sporting injury, an accidental fall or in many other ways, generally due to some sort of impact. While broken bones, or fractures, as they are otherwise known, are common, what’s important is how we recover from them.

Without getting too anatomical we will briefly discuss what’s involved in fracture healing as well as what factors determine how long the recovery will take. We will then look at ways to manage a fracture and, most importantly, what can help to speed up the recovery after a fracture.

There are three main stages of fracture healing – the inflammatory, reparative and remodelling stage. The inflammatory stage lasts approximately one week from when the fracture first occurs. This stage is important for the formation of a hematoma (blood clot), which is like the first “bridge” between the pieces of the broken bone. The hematoma is then replaced by a soft callus (soft bone) in the reparative stage. This soft callus gradually becomes harder over a period of 2-6 weeks which is generally when the body part is strong enough to start being used. Finally the hard callus is replaced by regular bone in the remodelling stage, which is the final part of the healing process. It can take up to a few months for the bone to regain its proper shape so that it will look the same as it did before the injury.

Depending on the type of fracture, how complex it is and where it occurs in the body healing can take anywhere between 6-13 weeks as a general rule. Some important factors to consider are the following:

• The person’s age
• The person’s medical conditions
• Whether the area where the fracture occurred has a good blood supply

Let’s review these in more detail.

It’s well known that kids heal faster than adults. When it comes to adults, however, age is not always an accurate predictor of the speed of recovery. Often it’s the person’s health status which is more important. For instance if a younger person has diabetes or some other serious medical condition the rate of healing can be slower than in an older person whose general health is good. If a person has osteoporosis healing will also tend to be slower. Older women are generally more predisposed to osteoporosis due to menopause. Blood supply to the area where the fracture occurred is another important consideration. Healing will always be faster when the blood supply to the area is good.

When it comes to the management of broken bones doctors will generally suggest one of the following:

• Traditional cast
• Functional cast or brace
• Surgery (this is usually reserved for severe or complicated fractures)

So what can be done to speed up the recovery after a fracture? The first step is closely following your doctor’s or surgeon’s orders. If, for example, you are told not to weight bear on your broken leg for a certain period of time and to use crutches it’s important to do so. Otherwise it can be easy to go backwards, not forwards, in the healing process.

Physiotherapy can also be very beneficial. Even if a person needs to immobilize a certain area it’s important to exercise surrounding areas in order to keep them strong and avoid muscle atrophy. For example if you have a foot fracture you can still do exercises for your hips and knees as well as for the upper body.

Certain electrotherapy modalities such as ultrasound, interferential therapy and magnetotherapy, which work via improving the blood supply and getting more oxygen to the tissues are also very effective for fracture healing. As we discussed blood supply to the affected area is an important predictor of the speed of recovery of a broken bone so anything which can help to improve this blood supply will be paramount in speeding up the healing process. Magnetotherapy in particular is of special consideration as it can work through plaster so can be used even while the body part is in a cast.