When Things Don ’t Heal as Planned

While a surgeon can reduce and stabilize a fracture perfectly, they cannot physically knit the bone back to its premorbid state. Bony healing is a complex process that is dependent on biologic, biomechanical, and environmental factors. With appropriate treatment, most fractures heal uneventfully with satisfactory function. Nonunions and symptomatic malunions are both rare. The low frequency with which we see these problems, however, makes them more difficult to treat. In this issue of Hand Clinics, we explore both nonunions and malunions in the upper extremity from the forearm to the fingertips.
Source: Hand Clinics - Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Tags: Preface Source Type: research