The femur is the longest and strongest bone of the body, and it carries the weight of the entire body. It is the heaviest tubular bone of the body that requires high-energy force to fracture, for example, as from motor vehicle accidents. Fracture of the femur carries high-risk complications like hemorrhage, fat embolism, and infection. […]

Dislocations are joint injuries that force the ends of your bones out of position. The cause is often a fall or a blow, sometimes from playing a contact sport. A patient can dislocate ankles, knees, shoulders, hips, elbows and jaw. Additionally, patient’s can dislocate fingers and toe joints. Dislocated joints often are swollen, very painful and visibly […]

The first intervention performed with any fracture or dislocation is stabilization. Fractures are typically stabilized in the position of function. Dislocations are stabilized in the position found (out of necessity since a dislocation is usually immoveable). Stabilization is where a rescuer uses his/her hands to hold the fracture or dislocation in the position found or […]

Hemorrhage Pelvic, hip and long bones are highly vascular and fracture can result in significant bleeding. Blood loss from a closed femoral fracture is estimated to be between 1000 mL and 1500 mL, and for closed tibial fractures 500 mL and 1000 mL. For open fractures, when the skin is breached, these figures may double. […]

The upper extremity or arm is a functional unit of the upper body. It consists of three sections, the upper arm, forearm, and hand. It extends from the shoulder joint to the fingers and contains 30 bones. It also consists of many nerves, blood vessels (arteries and veins), and muscles. The nerves of the arm are supplied […]

The leg is the region of the lower limb between the knee and the foot. It comprises two bones: the tibia and the fibula. The role of these two bones is to provide stability and support to the rest of the body, and through articulations with the femur and foot/ankle and the muscles attached to […]

A tendon is a fibrous connective tissue that attaches muscle to bone. Tendons may also attach muscles to structures such as the eyeball. A tendon serves to move the bone or structure. A ligament is a fibrous connective tissue that attaches bone to bone, and usually serves to hold structures together and keep them stable. […]

Various Mechanisms Of Injury Skeletal fractures can occur from both direct impact and indirect loading and are caused when the load, whether compression, tension or shear, in a localised part of the bone exceeds the strength of the bone.  The severity of the fracture will depend on the energy associated with the impact or loading, […]