What are the symptoms of avulsion fracture and is it serious?

In life, many people have experienced fractures. Most fractures are caused during exercise, and avulsion fractures are a common type of fracture. So what are the factors that cause avulsion fractures? Is avulsion fracture serious?

Causes

When people engage in strenuous activities, their muscles may contract, causing the protrusions and tuberosities of the bones connected to the tendons to separate partially or completely. The ligament pulls the bones where the ligaments are attached to peel off along with the ligaments, forming bone fragments, which is called an avulsion fracture. (In layman's terms, the muscle tendon is pulled too hard, and under the action of external forces, the attached bones fracture, tearing off the entire piece or a small part of the bone fragments)

Basic range

Tibial intercondylar eminence fractures and elbow joint fractures can both form avulsion fractures, which fall within the scope of avulsion fractures.

Symptoms

The symptoms of avulsion fracture are similar to those of fracture, with pain at the injury site and limited joint movement as the main manifestations, followed by local swelling and tenderness. Avulsion fracture of the intercondylar eminence of the tibia is a special type of intra-articular fracture, often an avulsion fracture of the anterior cruciate ligament or posterior cruciate ligament at the attachment of the tibia. Inappropriate treatment can lead to malformation and cause instability in knee joint function. Avulsion fracture of the intercondylar eminence of the tibia with displacement is often treated with traditional open reduction and wire internal fixation. Although open reduction and wire internal fixation can effectively reduce and fix the fracture fragments, it has the disadvantages of long incision, severe trauma, extremely painful and lengthy postoperative functional training, prone to knee joint stiffness, and inconvenient operation due to the narrow intercondylar notch.

Are avulsion fractures serious?

Avulsion fractures are relatively minor fractures, but are more serious compared to soft tissue injuries. This is because most of the bone fragments in avulsion fractures are relatively small, and are caused by the tendon or ligament attached to the bone being torn off together with the bone fragment and tendon. It is common that in various joints, most of the avulsed bone fragments are not displaced much, but some are displaced more, such as shoulder dislocation combined with greater tuberosity avulsion fracture. However, generally after the joint is reduced, the avulsed bone fragments will automatically reduce accordingly and can be treated conservatively. Even if it is treated surgically, it is generally sufficient to fix it with absorbable screws or tension screws. Because it is an avulsion fracture, not a fracture of the main bone, it has a relatively small impact on weight support, and weight bearing and exercise can be performed at an early stage. In addition, the bone fragment is connected to the ligament or tendon attachment point, and the blood circulation on the bone fragment is abundant, so the healing is also relatively fast. Therefore, this type of fracture is relatively mild among fractures.