Cast or Surgery for a Broken Bone? How Doctors Decide Between Immobilization and Fixation

The X-ray comes up on the screen and the doctor tilts the monitor so you can see it: a thin dark line across the bone, or maybe two ends that no longer quite meet. Your arm is throbbing, your day has been rearranged, and the question forming is the one almost every patient in this room asks. Will a cast be enough, or is this going to mean an operation?

The honest answer is that cast vs surgery for a broken bone is rarely a coin flip. Orthopedic teams work through a fairly predictable set of questions about the fracture itself, the person it belongs to and what the bone is going to be asked to do for the rest of that person’s life. Once you know those questions, the recommendation you hear usually makes sense.

This explainer walks through that reasoning in plain language, so that when your treating team lays out options, you can follow the logic and ask better questions.

How does a broken bone actually heal inside a cast?

A fracture is any break in a bone, from a hairline crack to a shatter into several pieces. Bone is living tissue with its own blood supply, and it heals in a way that looks nothing like a glued teacup. Within hours of the break, blood collects around the ends and forms a clot. Over the following days that clot is replaced by a soft bridge of cartilage and fibrous tissue, which is why the area stays tender and swollen. Weeks later, minerals harden that bridge into a lump of new bone called a callus, and over months the body remodels the callus back toward the bone’s original shape.

A cast does not speed any of this up. Its job is simpler: to hold the fragments still and in line so that the callus forms in the right place. Movement at the fracture site disrupts the fragile early bridge and can cause the bone to heal crooked, slowly or not at all. Plaster or fiberglass wrapped over padding gives the limb a rigid shell, while the joints above and below are often included so the muscles that cross the fracture cannot pull it out of position.

Doctors talk about this approach as immobilization, meaning holding the bone still without an operation, or closed treatment, meaning nothing is opened surgically. Sometimes a closed reduction happens first: the clinician manipulates the bone back into alignment by hand before the cast goes on. For most straightforward fractures, the NHS gives a typical healing window of around 6 to 8 weeks in adults, with children healing faster and larger bones such as the thigh bone taking longer. Your team will confirm alignment with follow-up X-rays because a bone that shifts inside a cast in the first couple of weeks can change the plan.

What does fixation surgery for a broken bone actually involve?

Fixation is the surgical term for holding bone fragments together with hardware so they cannot move while they heal. The most common version is open reduction and internal fixation, usually shortened to ORIF. Open reduction means the surgeon makes an incision to see the fracture and reposition the pieces directly. Internal fixation means the hardware, typically metal plates and screws, a rod inside the hollow of the bone, or thin wires, sits under the skin and stays there.

Here is what the day tends to look like. You receive a general anesthetic that puts you to sleep, or a regional block that numbs the whole limb, sometimes both. The surgeon exposes the fracture, cleans out any clot or debris, lines the fragments up under direct vision and X-ray guidance, and secures them. Screws pull fragments together; a plate acts like an external splint bolted along the bone; a rod, called an intramedullary nail, runs down the center of long bones such as the thigh or shin. The wound is closed and the limb is often rested in a splint or bandage for comfort.

The hardware does not heal the bone. Biology still does the work described in the previous section. What fixation changes is how precisely the fragments are aligned and how reliably they stay aligned. A well-fixed fracture is often stable enough that the joints nearby can start gentle movement early, which matters for the wrist, elbow and ankle where stiffness is a real long-term problem, as the Mayo Clinic notes in its discussion of wrist fracture treatment.

Most people do not need the metal removed later. It is taken out only if it causes irritation, infection or interferes with function, and that is a separate conversation with your surgeon months down the line.

Cast vs surgery for a broken bone: what doctors are actually weighing

Watch an orthopedic team discuss a case and you will hear the same handful of questions asked in roughly the same order. The first is alignment. Are the bone ends where they belong, or displaced, meaning shifted apart, angled, rotated or overlapping? Small degrees of displacement are tolerated in some bones and not in others.

The second is stability. Even a well-aligned fracture can be unstable if its pattern means it is likely to slip once swelling settles or muscles start pulling. Oblique and spiral breaks, comminuted fractures with several fragments, and breaks with crushed bone on one side tend to be less trustworthy inside a cast.

The third is whether the break runs into a joint. Cartilage surfaces need to be almost perfectly smooth to glide, and a step of even a millimeter or two can lead to arthritis years later. Intra-articular fractures, those extending into a joint, are therefore more often fixed.

The fourth is the skin and soft tissue. An open fracture, where bone has broken through the skin, carries infection risk and is treated as a surgical emergency by every major guideline body. Damage to nerves or blood vessels also pushes toward the operating room.

Only then does the conversation turn to the person: age, bone quality, activity level, other health conditions, the demands of work or caregiving, and what you can realistically manage at home. A cast on a non-dominant wrist is a nuisance for a desk worker and a serious problem for someone who lives alone and uses a walker. The Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins both frame treatment as matching the method to the fracture and the patient rather than defaulting to one approach.

Do I need surgery if I fracture a bone? Who usually gets a cast and who is asked to wait

The reassuring truth, supported by MedlinePlus and the NHS, is that many fractures heal well without an operation. Casts and splints remain the first choice for stable, minimally displaced breaks: a cracked wrist from a fall onto an outstretched hand, a forearm fracture in a child, a fractured collarbone that has not shortened much, many ankle fractures where the joint remains lined up, toes, fingers and simple breaks of the shin in the right pattern.

Surgery moves up the list when fragments are displaced beyond what the bone tolerates, when the fracture is unstable, when it enters a joint, when it is open, when the limb has lost blood supply or nerve function, or when the same bone has already failed to hold position in a cast. Hip fractures in adults are almost always treated surgically because prolonged bed rest carries its own serious risks, including clots and pneumonia, and because getting a person walking again quickly protects their independence.

Some people are asked to wait, and waiting is not neglect. Swelling in the first days can make an operation harder and wound healing riskier, so surgeons often hold a limb in a temporary splint for several days before fixing it. In other cases the team deliberately tries a cast first and re-checks the X-ray at one and two weeks; if the bone holds, surgery is avoided entirely, and if it slips, the plan changes with little lost.

Do not read a delay as indecision. Ask what the team is waiting to see, what the fallback is and when the next check happens. Those three questions will give you a clearer picture than any general rule.

Displaced fracture treatment: why the gap between the bone ends matters so much

Displacement is the single word that decides more cast-or-surgery conversations than any other. It describes how far the broken ends have moved from their normal position. Bone can slide sideways, tip into an angle, twist, shorten as fragments override each other, or do several at once. Radiologists measure these in millimeters and degrees, and orthopedic teams carry thresholds in their heads for each bone.

Why does it matter? Three reasons. Alignment affects how the limb works: a forearm that heals with a rotation may not let the palm turn fully upward, and a shin that heals angled shifts weight unevenly through the knee and ankle. Alignment affects joints: any step in a cartilage surface accelerates wear. And displacement often signals what happened to the soft tissue, because bone does not travel far without tearing the membrane around it, and that membrane, the periosteum, is a major source of the cells that build callus.

The response to displacement is called reduction, meaning putting the bone back into position. A closed reduction is done by hand, often in the emergency department with a local anesthetic injected into the fracture or under sedation, then held with a cast. An open reduction is done through an incision during surgery. The choice between them comes down to whether the bone can be moved back without opening the skin and, just as importantly, whether it will stay there.

Bones differ in how forgiving they are. Children’s bones remodel remarkably, so more angulation is accepted. The collarbone tolerates a fair amount of displacement in adults with little functional loss. The wrist joint and the ankle joint are notoriously unforgiving. This is why two people with fractures that look similar on the X-ray can be given different plans and both be receiving good care.

Cast vs surgery for a broken bone at a glance

No table can replace the judgment of a team looking at your films, but seeing the two paths side by side helps many people understand why one was suggested. The timelines below are typical ranges from the NHS and Mayo Clinic patient guidance, not promises, and your own may be shorter or longer.

Question	Cast or splint (immobilization)	Surgical fixation
Typical fracture	Stable, well aligned or easily reduced	Displaced, unstable, into a joint, open, or failed in cast
Anesthetic	Often none or local; sedation for a reduction	General or regional block
Hospital stay	Usually go home the same day	Day case to several days depending on bone
Joint movement nearby	Limited while cast is on	Often started early once the wound settles
Main risks	Loss of position, stiffness, pressure sores, tight cast	Infection, bleeding, nerve injury, hardware problems, anesthetic risk
Bone healing time	Around 6–8 weeks in adults for arm, wrist and ankle; longer for thigh and shin	Same biological timeline; hardware does not shorten it
Follow-up	Repeat X-rays to confirm position, cast checks	Wound check, X-rays, physiotherapy
Scar	None	Yes, size varies by approach

Two rows deserve emphasis. First, the bone heals on the same schedule either way; surgery buys alignment and stability, not speed of biology. Second, the risk columns are different in kind, not simply bigger or smaller. A cast risks a bone that quietly slips and heals crooked. An operation risks the wound, the anesthetic and the metal. Your team’s recommendation is essentially a judgment about which set of risks is smaller for your particular fracture.

Is wrist surgery minor or major?

People ask this constantly, and the fair answer is that it sits in the middle. Fixing a broken wrist, usually a fracture of the distal radius near the joint, is a routine operation for an orthopedic surgeon, commonly done as a day case under a regional block or general anesthetic through an incision on the palm side of the forearm. In that sense it is not major surgery in the way an abdominal operation is: no body cavity is opened, blood loss is small and most people are home the same day.

It is not trivial either. The wrist is crowded with tendons, the median nerve and blood vessels, and the joint surface must be restored precisely. Recovery involves weeks of swelling, a period in a splint, and a structured program of movement and strengthening. The Mayo Clinic’s guidance on broken wrists describes surgery as the option when a fracture is displaced, unstable or involves the joint surface, and emphasizes that stiffness is a common concern whichever method is used.

Why does the wrist so often prompt the cast-or-surgery debate? Because it is the classic borderline case. Many distal radius fractures are well aligned and heal beautifully in a cast. Others look acceptable on day one and drift over the next two weeks as swelling subsides and the fragments settle. Older adults with softer bone are especially prone to this drift, yet studies summarized by major centers have also found that many older adults regain very good function from cast treatment even when the final X-ray is imperfect. That leaves room for genuine shared decision-making about how much a person values the shape and strength of the wrist against the trade-offs of an operation.

If you are offered wrist fixation, it is reasonable to ask how displaced the fracture is, whether the joint surface is involved and what your team expects a cast alone to achieve.

What are the four main types of fixation surgery for fractures?

When people search for the four main types of surgery for a broken bone, they usually mean the four families of fixation. Each solves a different mechanical problem.

• Plates and screws. A metal plate is laid along the bone and fastened with screws on either side of the break, acting like an internal splint. This is the workhorse for wrist, forearm, ankle and many upper-arm fractures, especially where the joint surface needs rebuilding.
• Intramedullary nails. A long rod is passed down the hollow center of a long bone such as the thigh or shin and locked with screws at each end. Because the rod sits inside, the surrounding muscle and skin are disturbed less, and the leg can often bear some weight sooner than with a plate.
• Pins and wires. Thin metal wires are driven across the fracture, often through the skin without a large incision, and removed once the bone has healed. This is common for children’s elbow fractures and some wrist and hand injuries.
• External fixation. Pins are placed into the bone above and below the break and connected to a frame outside the skin. Surgeons use this when the skin is too damaged for an internal implant, in severely contaminated open fractures, or as a temporary bridge until the swelling allows definitive fixation.

A fifth option belongs in the conversation for some hip fractures: replacing the broken part of the joint rather than fixing it. When the ball of the hip has lost its blood supply, healing is unreliable, so a partial or total hip replacement is often chosen instead, as MedlinePlus and Johns Hopkins describe in their fracture overviews.

Which family a surgeon picks depends on the bone, the fracture pattern, the skin and the person. Combinations are common. None is inherently superior; each is a tool with a job.

Broken bone healing time: what the following days and weeks usually look like

The first three days are about swelling and pain, whichever path you are on. The limb is elevated above heart level as much as possible, fingers or toes are wiggled to keep blood moving, and pain is managed with medicines chosen by your clinician. If you have a cast, it will feel tight as swelling peaks and then loosen slightly as it recedes; if you have had surgery, the wound will be covered and you may have a splint for comfort.

Weeks one and two bring the first follow-up. A cast is inspected and an X-ray usually taken to confirm the bone has not shifted. After surgery the wound is checked, and if all is well, gentle movement of nearby joints often begins. This early motion is one of the practical advantages of fixation for the wrist and ankle.

Weeks three to six are quieter. Pain eases into a dull ache; the soft callus is turning to bone. Casts may be changed if they loosen. People often feel better than the bone actually is, which is when instructions about not bearing weight are most often broken.

Around six to eight weeks, according to NHS guidance for the arm, wrist and ankle, most adult fractures are solid enough for a cast to come off or for weight-bearing to increase after surgery. Larger bones take longer; the NHS notes a broken leg can need several months, and severe fractures longer still. Children generally heal in less time.

Removing the cast is not the finish line. The limb underneath is thinner, stiff and weak, the skin dry and flaky, and rehabilitation starts in earnest. Full strength and comfort commonly take months beyond the point the bone is considered healed, and your team will set milestones rather than a single date.

How long is surgery recovery time after fracture fixation?

Recovery after fixation surgery has three overlapping clocks, and confusing them causes most of the disappointment people feel.

The first clock is wound healing. Skin incisions typically close over about two weeks, which is when stitches or staples come out and showering without a cover becomes possible, though your team will give specific instructions. Numbness or hypersensitivity around a scar can linger for months and usually settles.

The second clock is bone healing, and this is the one surgery does not accelerate. The fixed fragments still need the same weeks of callus formation described earlier. What changes is that the hardware carries load in the meantime, so the surgeon may allow movement or partial weight-bearing before the bone alone could tolerate it. The Cleveland Clinic’s fracture guidance gives 6 to 8 weeks as a common healing window, with more complex or larger-bone fractures taking longer.

The third clock is function: returning to driving, typing, lifting a toddler, running or working a physical job. This depends on the bone, the joint, your job, your age and how consistently you do rehabilitation. A fixed ankle may keep someone away from standing work for a couple of months; a fixed wrist might let a desk worker type within days but keep them from heavy lifting for far longer. Ask your team about the specific activities that matter to you rather than a generic date.

Two practical points. Driving is usually not advised while a limb is in a cast or splint or while you are taking sedating pain medicines; check with your clinician and insurer. And if you fly during recovery, the usual advice on staying mobile, hydrating and reducing clot risk applies more than ever, because a recent fracture or operation increases the chance of a blood clot in the leg.

Risks and trade-offs on both sides, in plain terms

Neither path is risk-free, and pretending otherwise does patients no favors. The risks are simply of a different kind.

A cast carries the risk of the bone slipping out of position, particularly in the first two weeks, which is why repeat X-rays are routine. It can be too tight, especially as swelling increases in the first two days, and a tight cast that is not loosened can compress nerves, blood vessels and muscle. Skin under a cast can break down over bony points. Joints that are immobilized stiffen, muscles shrink, and older adults in particular can lose function that takes long effort to regain. Occasionally a fracture treated in a cast heals slowly or not at all, a situation called delayed union or nonunion, which may then need surgery anyway.

Surgery carries the risks of any operation: infection of the wound or, more seriously, of the bone; bleeding; injury to nerves or blood vessels near the incision; and reactions to anesthesia. Fixation adds hardware-specific problems: screws that irritate tendons, plates that can be felt under thin skin, metal that loosens if the bone is soft, and the possibility of a second operation to remove it. Blood clots in the leg veins are a recognized risk after lower-limb fractures and surgery, and your team may recommend measures to reduce that risk. Nonunion can occur after surgery too.

Alternatives exist along the spectrum. Some fractures suit a removable splint rather than a full cast. Some suit a period in a cast with surgery held in reserve. A few fractures in frail adults are treated with early movement and acceptance of an imperfect X-ray because the priority is function and safety rather than anatomy. Guideline bodies consistently frame this as a shared decision, weighed for each patient by the treating team.

How age changes the cast or surgery decision

The same fracture on the X-ray can call for different treatment at age eight, forty and eighty, and understanding why removes a lot of confusion.

Children’s bones are softer, more flexible and covered by a thick periosteum, so they often bend or crack partially rather than snapping. They also heal faster and, crucially, remodel: a bone that heals with a modest angle will straighten itself over months as the child grows. The NHS notes children’s fractures generally heal more quickly than adults’. Casting is therefore the mainstay in childhood, and surgeons accept degrees of angulation they would never accept in an adult. The important exceptions involve growth plates, the soft zones near the ends of bones where lengthening happens. Fractures through them can disturb growth, so alignment there is taken seriously and sometimes pinned. Displaced elbow fractures in children are another frequent reason for wires.

Healthy adults have the least forgiving bones: no remodeling to rescue an imperfect position, high functional demands, and decades of use ahead. This is the group where joint-surface accuracy and rotational alignment carry the most weight in the decision.

Older adults present a different balance. Bone weakened by osteoporosis, a condition of reduced bone density, holds screws less securely and slips more easily in a cast. At the same time, functional expectations, other medical conditions and the risks of anesthesia all enter the calculation. For the hip, surgery is almost universal because immobility is more dangerous than the operation. For the wrist, the evidence summarized by major centers suggests many older adults do well in a cast despite an imperfect X-ray. A fracture in later life is also a signal to ask about bone health, since MedlinePlus and NIH guidance identify a first fragility fracture as a strong predictor of another.

What people often get wrong about casts and fracture surgery

Myth: surgery makes the bone heal faster. It does not. Fixation changes alignment and stability, and may allow earlier movement or weight-bearing because the metal shares the load, but the biology of callus runs on its own timetable.

Myth: if the bone is broken, it needs a cast. Many fractures do well in removable splints, slings or simple buddy-taping to a neighboring finger or toe, and some, such as certain rib and collarbone fractures, are treated with support and pain management alone.

Myth: a cast means the doctor is not taking it seriously. Choosing a cast for a stable fracture is the evidence-based option, not the lazy one. Operating on a bone that would heal well on its own adds risk without benefit.

Myth: the plate or rod will have to come out. Most hardware stays for life without trouble. Removal is reserved for irritation, infection or specific circumstances, and it is a separate decision made later.

Myth: once the cast is off, you are healed. The bone may be joined, but muscle, joint and tendon recovery has barely begun. Rehabilitation is where function is won or lost.

Myth: a bone that heals in a slightly wrong position is a failure. Bones tolerate different amounts of imperfection. A collarbone or a child’s forearm can heal with visible angulation and work normally; a wrist joint surface cannot. The acceptable result is defined by function, not by a perfectly straight X-ray.

Myth: the pain should be gone by the time the cast is removed. Aching, stiffness and swelling that comes and goes over the months after healing are common, especially after ankle and wrist fractures, and do not by themselves mean something has gone wrong. Persistent or worsening pain, however, should always be reported.

Questions to ask your care team before you decide

The most useful conversations happen when patients ask about their own fracture rather than fractures in general. These questions are designed to draw out the specific reasoning behind the recommendation you receive.

• Is my fracture displaced, and if so, by how much? Is that within the range this bone tolerates?
• Is the fracture stable? What is the chance it moves if we treat it in a cast, and how would you know?
• Does the break involve a joint surface, a growth plate or the skin?
• If you are recommending a cast, when is the next X-ray, and what would make you change the plan to surgery?
• If you are recommending surgery, what type of fixation, through what incision, and under what kind of anesthetic?
• What are the main risks of each option for someone with my health conditions, medicines and bone quality?
• What can I do, and not do, with this limb in the first two weeks, and then at six weeks?
• When might I drive, return to work, care for children or resume sport, given what my daily life actually involves?
• Will I need physiotherapy, and who arranges it?
• Would the hardware ever need to be removed?
• Should this fracture prompt a check of my bone density or a review of fall risk?
• Who do I contact, and how, if something feels wrong at night or over a weekend?

It also helps to say out loud what matters most to you: getting back to a manual job, avoiding a scar, staying independent at home, or simply choosing the path with the fewest hospital visits. Orthopedic teams weigh function and safety, but they cannot weigh your priorities unless they hear them. Bring someone with you if you can, and ask for the plan in writing.

When to call your doctor: red-flag signs with a cast or after fixation surgery

Most recoveries are uneventful, but a small number of problems need prompt attention, and the early signs are easy to dismiss as ordinary discomfort. Seek urgent care, calling emergency services if necessary, for any of the following.

With a cast or splint: pain that is severe, rising and not eased by elevation or the medicines you were given, especially pain out of proportion to the injury or triggered by gently stretching the fingers or toes. Fingers or toes that turn pale, blue or grey, feel cold, or that you cannot move. Numbness, pins and needles or burning that is new or worsening. Swelling that makes the cast feel unbearably tight. Skin that is rubbed raw at the cast edge, a bad smell, discharge or a wet or soft cast. A cast that has cracked, or that has become so loose the limb moves inside it. These signs can indicate compartment syndrome, a dangerous rise in pressure within the muscles, or a fracture that has shifted; both are time-sensitive, as the NHS and MedlinePlus emphasize.

After surgery: fever, chills or feeling generally unwell. Increasing redness, warmth, swelling or spreading pain around the wound, or pus, cloudy fluid or bleeding that soaks the dressing. A wound that opens. New numbness or weakness in the limb. Pain in the calf, swelling of one leg, or a sudden change in the appearance of the limb. Chest pain, breathlessness or coughing up blood, which can signal a clot that has traveled to the lungs and is an emergency.

At any stage: a fall or knock onto the injured limb, a sudden change in its shape, or pain that steadily worsens rather than easing week by week. If something feels wrong and you are unsure, contact your treating team; a reassuring phone call costs nothing, and the problems on this list are far easier to treat early.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need surgery if I fracture a bone?

Not necessarily; many fractures heal well in a cast, splint or sling. Surgery is usually considered when the bone ends are significantly displaced, the fracture is unstable, it extends into a joint, it has broken through the skin, or a cast has failed to hold position. Your orthopedic team weighs the X-ray findings alongside your age, bone quality and daily demands before recommending a path.

Is wrist surgery minor or major?

It sits between the two. Fixing a broken wrist is a routine day-case operation under a regional block or general anesthetic, with a small incision and little blood loss. It still involves weeks of swelling, a splint, a formal rehabilitation program and the ordinary surgical risks of infection, nerve irritation and hardware problems. Recovery of full strength and movement commonly takes months.

What are the four main types of surgery for a broken bone?

The four families of fixation are plates and screws laid along the bone, intramedullary nails passed down the center of long bones, pins and wires driven across the fracture, and external fixation with a frame outside the skin. For some hip fractures, replacing the damaged part of the joint is chosen instead of fixation. Surgeons pick based on the bone, fracture pattern and soft tissue.

How long is surgery recovery time after fracture fixation?

It depends on which clock you mean. Wounds typically close within about two weeks; bone healing commonly takes 6 to 8 weeks or longer for large bones, according to Cleveland Clinic and NHS guidance; and return to full function, including sport or heavy work, often takes several months of rehabilitation. Your team will set milestones for your specific bone and job.

What is broken bone healing time in a cast compared with surgery?

The bone itself heals on the same timetable either way, because hardware does not speed up callus formation. NHS guidance gives around 6 to 8 weeks for most adult arm, wrist and ankle fractures, longer for the thigh and shin, and less for children. The difference is that a well-fixed fracture may allow earlier movement of nearby joints or partial weight-bearing while the bone knits.

What is displaced fracture treatment?

A displaced fracture is one where the bone ends have moved out of their normal alignment. Treatment begins with reduction, which means repositioning the fragments. This can be done by hand under local anesthetic or sedation and then held in a cast, or through an incision during surgery with plates, screws, nails or wires holding the bone. The choice depends on whether the bone can be repositioned closed and will stay put.

What does open reduction internal fixation mean?

Open reduction internal fixation, or ORIF, is the most common fracture operation. Open reduction means the surgeon makes an incision to see and reposition the broken pieces directly. Internal fixation means hardware such as a plate and screws or a rod is placed under the skin to hold them still while the bone heals. The metal usually stays in permanently unless it causes problems.

Can a bone that was put in a cast still end up needing surgery?

Yes, and this is a planned possibility rather than a failure. Fragments can drift in the first one to two weeks as swelling settles, which is why repeat X-rays are routine. If the position becomes unacceptable, or if the bone later shows delayed healing, your team may recommend fixation. Trying a cast first for a borderline fracture is often the evidence-based approach.

Does the metal have to be removed after fracture surgery?

Usually not. Most plates, screws and nails stay in place for life without causing trouble. Removal is considered when hardware irritates tendons or skin, becomes infected, loosens or limits movement, and in some children when growth is a concern. It is a separate operation and a separate decision, discussed with your surgeon only after the bone has fully healed.

Why is a broken hip almost always treated with surgery?

Because the alternative, weeks of bed rest, carries serious risks of blood clots, pneumonia, pressure sores and permanent loss of mobility, particularly in older adults. Surgery, either fixation or partial or total hip replacement depending on the fracture and blood supply, allows people to sit up and start walking within days. Guidance from MedlinePlus and Johns Hopkins reflects this as standard practice.

References

• MedlinePlus: Fractures
• NHS: Broken arm or wrist
• NHS: Broken leg
• Cleveland Clinic: Bone fractures

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.