Bone fracture
medical condition in which there is physical damage to the continuity of the bones
A bone fracture (abbreviated FRX or Fx, Fx, or #) is a medical condition in which there is a partial or complete break in the continuity of any bone in the body. In more severe cases, the bone may be broken into several fragments, known as a comminuted fracture. An open fracture (or compound fracture) is a bone fracture where the broken bone breaks through the skin.
A bone fracture may be the result of high force impact or stress, or a minimal trauma injury as a result of certain medical conditions that weaken the bones, such as osteoporosis, osteopenia, bone cancer, or osteogenesis imperfecta, where the fracture is then properly termed a pathologic fracture. Most bone fractures require urgent medical attention to prevent further injury.
Signs and symptoms
Although bone tissue contains no pain receptors, a bone fracture is painful for several reasons:
Breaking in the continuity of the periosteum, with or without similar discontinuity in endosteum, as both contain multiple pain receptors.
Edema and hematoma of nearby soft tissues caused by ruptured bone marrow evokes pressure pain.
Involuntary muscle spasms trying to hold bone fragments in place.
Damage to adjacent structures such as nerves, muscles or blood vessels, spinal cord, and nerve roots (for spine fractures), or cranial contents (for skull fractures) may cause other specific signs and symptoms.
Complications
Some fractures may lead to serious complications, including a condition known as compartment syndrome.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bone fracture” as medical condition in which there is physical damage to the continuity of the bones. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as medical condition in which there is physical damage to the continuity of the bones. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q68833. The Library of Congress control number is sh85051155. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bone fracture” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.