Fracture

(fraktur.) [From L. fractur a, a breaking.] (Surg.) A solution of continuity in a bone. A simple F. is when ab one only is divided. A compound F. is a division of the bone with a wound of the integuments communicating with the bone-the bone, indeed, generally protruding. In a comminuted F., the bone is broken into several pieces; and in a complicatedF. there is, in addition to the injury done to the bone, a lesion of some important ve el, nervous trunk, .- Treatment of F. Replace the fragments as near as po ible to their former positions by gentle extension, retain them in place by substituting an external rigid skeleton, made of any unyielding material which will be firm enough to resist the spasms already alluded to, but is not fastened with very great tightne to the limb. Splints are generally of wood or pasteboard; but of late years gutta-perch a has been much used. In simple F., it is often sufficient to adapt a bandage to the limb, which will harden on drying, and form a shell for it; for this purpose, starch, dextrin, and plaster of Paris are generally used. Whatever the splint be made of, it must keep the bones in a state of complete rest, otherwise the lymph, which would be formed into bone, stops, as it were, half-way, and becomes fibrous ti ue, which allows the fragments to move on each other, and is termed a false joint.-(Min.) The manner in which a mine rai breaks-being one of its specific characteristics. The F. is either compact or smooth, foliated or [s. 380]