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Skeletal System Case

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Skeletal System Case Study Molly Hennard Wright State University Skeletal System Case Study In this case study, an 18-year old boy was brought to the emergency room after a football game injury. He had an open fracture on his wrist and after an x-ray was taken, it showed that his wrist was broken into three parts and a small part of that was showing through the skin. The patient was admitted to the hospital so that he could undergo surgery to repair the fracture. Case Study Question 1 In this patient, factors that could influence the bone healing are diabetes, any medications he is taking, poor nutrition and circulatory problems. There are also some complications of the bone healing. Delayed union is when the bone takes …show more content…

Hematoma formation is the first step. This is when broken blood vessels in the bone and surrounding tissues that result from the broken bone bleed into the areas around the fractured bone. This blood forms a clot, also known as a hematoma, which starts the formation a fibrin meshwork that provides the framework for the development of new capillary buds at the fracture site. Fibrocartilaginous callus formation is the next step. During this step, the new capillaries that are going into the hematoma at the fracture form a granulation tissue known as a procalls, which is what forms before the Fibrocartilaginous. The fibrocartilaginous is a soft callus bridge that is formed by fibroblast and connects the two broken bone fragments. The third step is ossification. Ossification is when the fibrocartilaginous cartilage that was formed over the fracture is converted into a bony callus. Osteoblast, cells that produce and build bone, are developed and begin to produce spongy bone. The osteoblasts create a bony sheath over the fracture and the fibrocartiloginous callus is covered. This bony sheath is eventually calcified and mature bone replaces it. Remodeling is the final step of fracture healing. This is when osteoclasts go the newly formed bone and remove any dead parts of the bone. The spongy bone that was formed during ossification is replaced with …show more content…

Osteomyelitis is caused by parasites, bacteria, viruses and fungi getting into the bone and bone marrow. Since the patient had an open fracture, this allowed for bacteria and viruses to get past the skin and enter into the bone. This greatly increases his risk for osteomyelitis. Also, having to have surgery to fix the fracture also increases the risk. Infection could be caused in the bone as well as septic joints during joint replacement surgery can all lead to osteomyelitis. There can also be infections that occur during the healing process after surgery that lead to osteomyelitis. Overall, anything that will keep the wound open and allow possible bacteria and viruses into the body can lead to osteomyelitis (Porth,

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