How Closed Reduction Works: Realigning a Broken Bone Without an Incision

The wrist looks wrong before anyone says the word. A step off a curb, a hand thrown out, and now the forearm has a bend it did not have ten minutes ago. In the emergency department the X-ray confirms what the eye already suspected: the bone is broken and the two ends are no longer lined up. Then the doctor says something that sounds almost casual. “We’ll need to put it back in place.”

That sentence is the doorway to a closed reduction procedure, and it raises a rush of questions all at once. Will it hurt? Is this surgery? Why not just cast it as it is? How does anyone move a bone through skin and muscle without opening anything up?

The honest answers are more reassuring than the imagination, and more interesting. Closed reduction is one of the oldest treatments in medicine, refined by anesthesia and imaging into something precise. Here is what actually happens, who it suits, and what the following weeks tend to look like.

What is a closed reduction procedure, in plain terms?

Two words carry the whole idea. A fracture is simply a broken bone, whether it is a hairline crack or a clean break with the ends pushed apart. A reduction is the act of moving those broken ends back into their normal alignment. “Closed” means the skin stays intact throughout: no incision, no stitches, nothing implanted. The clinician works from the outside, using their hands, gravity and sometimes gentle weights, and checks the result with an X-ray.

Not every fracture needs it. Many breaks are non-displaced, meaning the pieces have cracked but stayed where they were, and those can go straight into a splint or cast. Closed reduction enters the picture when the fragments are displaced, shifted or angled away from each other, or when a joint has been knocked out of its socket, which is a dislocation rather than a fracture but is reduced in a very similar way.

MedlinePlus describes the procedure as manipulating the bone into position and then immobilizing it so it can heal, with pain control ranging from a local anesthetic injected near the break to sedation or general anesthesia. That framing matters, because it tells you what closed reduction is not. It is not an operation in the usual sense, it does not by itself fix the bone permanently, and it does not replace the weeks of healing that follow. It is the setup: put the pieces where they belong so the body can do the knitting.

One more distinction is worth holding onto from the start. Closed reduction is a technique, not a guarantee. Sometimes the fragments will not stay aligned once the pressure is released, and the treating team will then talk about other options. Knowing that possibility exists up front tends to make the follow-up X-rays feel less like a test you might fail and more like the routine checkpoint they are.

How closed reduction works, step by step

Picture the procedure as four movements rather than one.

First, the assessment. The clinician examines the limb, checks the pulse beyond the break, tests sensation in the fingers or toes, and studies the X-ray to understand exactly how the fragments have shifted. This is where the plan for the maneuver is made, because a bone that has angled backward must be moved differently from one that has slid sideways.

Second, pain control. Depending on the bone, the patient and the setting, this may be a local anesthetic placed directly into the space around the fracture, a nerve block that numbs the whole region, intravenous sedation that makes you drowsy and relaxed, or a general anesthetic in an operating room. Mayo Clinic notes that for a broken wrist the doctor may numb the area or use sedation before repositioning the bone. Muscles that were clenched in protective spasm loosen, which is often what makes the reduction possible.

Third, the reduction itself. Traction is a steady pull along the length of the limb, and it does most of the work. As the muscles are gently stretched, the fragments that were overlapping are drawn apart and can be guided back into line. The clinician then applies counter-pressure with their hands, often reversing the direction of the original injury, until the bone feels and looks straight. Some centers use a portable X-ray or a fluoroscope, a live X-ray screen, to watch the fragments move.

Fourth, holding the position. A padded splint or a full cast is applied while the limb is still held in the corrected position, and it is molded to press on exactly the points that keep the bone from drifting. A final X-ray confirms the alignment. From here on, the cast is doing the job the clinician’s hands just did.

Why bones need realigning at all

A broken bone heals whether or not anyone straightens it. That is the surprising part. Within hours a blood clot forms around the fracture, over days it becomes a soft cartilage-like scaffold called callus, and over weeks that callus mineralizes into hard bone. Cleveland Clinic describes this sequence as the body’s own repair program, and it will run in a crooked bone just as readily as in a straight one.

The problem is what a crooked bone does afterward. A wrist that heals with the joint surface tilted the wrong way loses range of motion and grinds unevenly, which is a well-recognized setup for arthritis. A forearm bone that heals short or rotated changes how the hand turns palm up and palm down. A shin that heals angled shifts the load on the knee and ankle. Alignment is about function years from now, not appearance next month.

Realigning the fragments does one other thing: it brings the broken surfaces back into contact. Bone bridges a narrow gap far more reliably than a wide one. When the ends are pulled apart or separated by a layer of muscle, healing can stall, a state called nonunion, or proceed in the wrong shape, called malunion. Good reduction stacks the odds toward a straightforward repair.

There is a threshold to all this. Surgeons speak of “acceptable alignment,” which is not perfection but a range within which the bone will function normally once healed. Where that range sits depends on the bone, the age of the patient and the joint involved. A mildly angled fracture in a child’s forearm may be left alone because the growing bone will straighten itself, while the same angle in an adult’s wrist would be reduced. The X-ray decides, alongside the clinician’s judgment, and this is why two people with similar-sounding injuries can be offered quite different plans.

Who a closed reduction procedure is usually for, and who is usually asked to wait

The ideal candidate is straightforward to describe. The bone is displaced enough that leaving it would cause a functional problem, the fragments are few and reasonably large, the skin is intact, and there is good reason to expect the bone to stay in place once it is held in a cast. Distal radius fractures at the wrist, forearm fractures in children, some ankle fractures and many finger fractures fall into this group. Dislocated shoulders, elbows and fingers are reduced the same way, often within the same visit.

Other situations push the treating team toward a different path, and it helps to know why rather than to feel that closed reduction was “refused.”

• Open fractures, where the bone has pierced the skin, need surgical cleaning because of infection risk, so reduction happens in the operating room.
• Fractures that run into a joint surface often need alignment measured in millimeters, which hands and a cast cannot always achieve.
• Highly fragmented breaks, sometimes called comminuted, have too many small pieces to hold in position from the outside.
• Unstable patterns that slip back after a first attempt tell the team that a cast alone will not hold, and pins or plates may be discussed.
• Fractures with nerve or blood-vessel injury are urgent and may need direct surgical attention.

Then there are the people asked to wait, not for a different treatment but for a better moment. Massive swelling can make a cast unsafe to apply tightly, so a temporary splint goes on and the reduction or definitive cast follows once the swelling settles. Someone who has just eaten may need to wait before sedation is safe. A patient on blood thinners, or with a heart or lung condition, may have their anesthesia plan adjusted first. None of this is delay for its own sake; it is the team lining up the safest version of the same procedure.

Closed reduction vs open reduction: what's the difference?

The words are almost self-explanatory once you know that “open” refers to the skin. An open reduction is a surgical operation in which the surgeon makes an incision, sees the fracture directly, and lines up the fragments by hand or with instruments. It is almost always paired with internal fixation, meaning metal plates, screws, rods or wires that hold the bone in position from the inside. The combined procedure is usually abbreviated ORIF. Johns Hopkins lists both approaches among the standard ways fractures are treated, chosen according to the type and location of the break.

Neither is “better” as a general rule. Each carries its own trade-offs, and the choice is a matching exercise between the fracture pattern and the method most likely to hold it.

Feature	Closed reduction	Open reduction with internal fixation
Skin	Intact; no incision	Surgical incision
How alignment is achieved	Traction and hand pressure, checked by X-ray	Direct visualization and instruments
What holds the bone	Splint or cast externally; sometimes pins through the skin	Plates, screws, rods or wires inside
Anesthesia	Local, regional, sedation or general	Regional or general, in an operating room
Main risks	Loss of position, cast problems, stiffness	Infection, wound issues, hardware irritation, anesthesia risks
Typical use	Stable, displaced fractures with intact skin	Open, unstable, multi-fragment or joint-surface fractures

There is a middle ground worth knowing about. Closed reduction with percutaneous pinning keeps the skin essentially closed but adds thin metal pins passed through small punctures to lock the fragments after they have been aligned by hand. It is common in children’s elbow fractures and some wrist fractures. If your team mentions pins, that is what they mean, and it does not turn the procedure into an open operation.

Is closed reduction painful? How pain is controlled

This is the question people most want answered and are most reluctant to ask. The candid answer: the injury is painful, the reduction is designed not to be, and most people describe pressure, pulling and a sensation of movement rather than sharp pain during the maneuver itself.

How that is achieved depends on the anesthesia plan, and each option works differently. A local anesthetic injected into the pocket of blood around the break blocks the nerve endings right where the bone ends grind, and takes effect within minutes. A regional block places anesthetic around a larger nerve so an entire arm or leg goes numb for hours, which can also make the first night more comfortable. Procedural sedation uses intravenous medicines that relax muscles and blur awareness; many people remember little or nothing of the reduction afterward. General anesthesia means being fully asleep, and is reserved for cases where the reduction will be prolonged, difficult, or done alongside pinning.

MedlinePlus lists these same tiers as the standard choices, and which one you receive is decided by the treating team based on the bone, your medical history, whether you have eaten recently, and the resources of the department. Children are more often sedated fully, because holding still is part of the job and it is not fair to ask a frightened seven-year-old to do it.

Once the cast is on, the character of the pain changes. The deep ache of unstable bone ends rubbing together usually eases noticeably because the fragments are no longer moving. What replaces it is the soreness of bruised soft tissue and swelling, which peaks over the first day or two. Your team will discuss which pain relievers are appropriate for you; those choices, and how long to use them, belong with the prescribing clinician. Elevating the limb above heart level and keeping still in the early hours does a surprising amount of the work that medication is often assumed to do.

Is closed reduction surgery, and how long does it take?

Whether a closed reduction counts as “surgery” depends on who is asking. On a billing form it may be listed as a procedure. From the patient’s point of view, there is no incision, nothing is implanted, and there is no wound to care for afterward, so it does not resemble surgery as most people imagine it. Anesthesiologists take it seriously because sedation and general anesthesia carry their own protocols, which is why you may be asked the same fasting and medical-history questions you would face before an operation.

The location tells you something too. Simple wrist, finger and forearm reductions are commonly done in an emergency department or fracture clinic. Reductions expected to be difficult, those needing general anesthesia, and those combined with percutaneous pins are done in an operating room. Being taken to a theater does not mean the plan has changed to an open operation; it often just reflects where the anesthesia team and imaging are available.

On timing, be wary of any single number. The manipulation itself is usually the shortest part of the whole visit, brief once the anesthetic has taken hold. What stretches the day is everything around it: waiting for imaging, waiting for the anesthetic to work, waiting for a cast to harden, and waiting for a post-reduction X-ray to be read. Then there is observation after sedation, which continues until you are fully awake, able to drink and steady on your feet. People arrive expecting a quick fix and leave hours later, not because anything went wrong but because safety is slow.

If you are having sedation, plan on someone driving you home. MedlinePlus advises that you should not drive after receiving sedation or anesthesia, and most departments will not discharge a sedated patient without a responsible adult. Arranging that ride before the procedure spares a great deal of awkwardness at the end of a long day.

Closed reduction and casting in children

Children break bones differently, heal them differently, and are reduced with a different set of judgments, so it is worth a section of its own.

A child’s bone is more flexible and is wrapped in a thick, active membrane called the periosteum that produces new bone. Near each end of a long bone sits the growth plate, a band of cartilage where lengthening happens. Fractures in children often bend or buckle rather than snap, and they knit quickly. Just as important, a child’s bone can remodel: over months of growth, a bone that healed slightly angled gradually straightens itself. Cleveland Clinic notes that children’s fractures generally heal faster than adults’ and that growing bone corrects a degree of angulation on its own.

This changes the definition of “acceptable.” A forearm angle that would be reduced in an adult may be left alone in an eight-year-old. Conversely, fractures through the growth plate itself are watched closely, because damage there can affect how the bone grows.

When reduction is needed, children are usually fully sedated or given a general anesthetic, partly for comfort and partly because a still patient allows a more accurate reduction. Parents often ask whether they can be present. Practices vary, and the team will tell you what is possible in their setting.

The days afterward have a few child-specific themes. Casts get wet, get things pushed down them and get scratched with pencils; the NHS plaster-cast guidance on keeping casts dry and never inserting objects applies doubly. Itching is common, and a hair dryer on the cool setting blown into the cast edge is a widely recommended, safe way to relieve it. Children also tend to under-report symptoms, so parents are asked to watch fingers and toes for color, warmth and movement rather than relying on complaints. A child who becomes unusually quiet or refuses to move a casted limb deserves a call to the team.

The first 48 hours after a closed reduction

Most of what matters in the first two days comes down to swelling, and most of what you are asked to do is aimed at it.

Bruised tissue around a fracture swells for a day or two before it begins to settle. Inside a rigid cast that swelling has nowhere to go, so pressure rises. The NHS plaster-cast guidance advises keeping the limb raised, ideally above the level of the heart, for the first few days, and moving the fingers or toes regularly to keep blood moving. A pillow or two under the arm at night, a footstool or the arm of a sofa during the day, does more than any single medicine to keep the cast comfortable. Cold packs over the cast, wrapped so the plaster stays dry, can help in the early hours if your team agrees.

Casts made of plaster take time to reach full strength. The NHS notes that a plaster cast can take a day or two to dry completely, and during that time it should rest on a soft surface rather than a hard edge that could dent it, and should not bear weight. Synthetic casts harden faster but the same caution about keeping them dry applies.

If you were sedated, expect the rest of the day to be a write-off. Drowsiness, patchy memory and a lack of appetite are ordinary. Someone should be with you, and decisions, driving and anything requiring judgment should wait until the next morning.

Pain in these first hours should feel like a bruise settling rather than a bone moving. A cast that feels progressively tighter, fingers that swell, tingle or lose color, or pain that escalates despite elevation and the medication your team suggested is not something to sleep on. MedlinePlus aftercare guidance for closed reduction lists exactly these as reasons to contact the clinic or return to the emergency department, and the section on red flags below spells them out.

Closed reduction recovery time: what the following weeks usually look like

Recovery from a closed reduction is really recovery from the fracture, and it follows a rhythm that most people find predictable once it is laid out.

The first week or two is about confirming the reduction has held. Because swelling shrinks and muscles relax, fragments can drift in the early days, so a repeat X-ray is standard. MedlinePlus aftercare guidance notes that follow-up imaging checks that the bone is staying in place and healing. Some people need a cast changed at this stage as the limb slims down and the original cast loosens.

Weeks two to six are the quiet stretch. Callus forms and hardens. Pain fades to an occasional ache. The daily work is protecting the cast, keeping it dry, and moving every joint that is not immobilized. Shoulder and elbow stiffness after a wrist cast is common and largely preventable by regular gentle movement.

Around six to eight weeks is when many adult arm and wrist fractures have healed enough for the cast to come off. The NHS gives that range as typical for a broken arm or wrist in adults, with the caveat that more severe breaks take longer and children usually heal faster. Ankle and leg fractures often run longer because they bear weight.

After the cast comes the part people underestimate. The limb emerges thin, stiff, scaly and weak. Wrist rotation that was effortless feels rusty. This is normal, and it is where physiotherapy or a home exercise program earns its place. Mayo Clinic describes rehabilitation exercises after the cast is removed as key to restoring motion and strength, and points out that full recovery can take several months. Strength returns gradually; grip in particular can lag behind range of motion.

None of these ranges is a promise. Age, smoking, diabetes, nutrition and the specific fracture pattern all shift the timeline, and your team’s X-rays, not the calendar, decide when the cast comes off.

What can go wrong after a closed reduction procedure?

Neutral honesty serves better than reassurance here. Closed reduction is low-risk compared with open surgery, and the complications that do occur are mostly predictable and watched for.

Loss of reduction is the most common. The fragments slip back toward their original position, usually in the first one to two weeks as swelling subsides. It is detected on the follow-up X-ray, and the options are a second reduction, a period of observation if the shift is within acceptable limits, or a move to pins or plates. This is not a failure of anyone’s effort; some fracture patterns are simply inclined to slide.

Cast problems are next. A cast applied over swelling can become too tight; one applied after swelling settles can become too loose to hold the bone. Skin under a cast can develop pressure sores or irritation, especially at the edges. Keeping the cast dry and intact prevents most of these.

Compartment syndrome is rare but serious. Pressure inside a muscle compartment rises until blood flow is compromised. It announces itself as pain out of proportion to the injury, worsened by stretching the fingers or toes, with tightness, numbness and pallor. MedlinePlus lists these among the signs requiring urgent return. Prompt release of the cast, and sometimes surgery, protects the muscle.

Nerve irritation can result from the injury itself, the swelling or the reduction, most often as tingling that settles over weeks. Persistent numbness needs assessment.

Malunion and nonunion, healing in a poor position or failing to heal, are uncommon after a well-held reduction but more likely with smoking, poor nutrition or certain fracture types. Stiffness and weakness after immobilization are near-universal and usually recover with rehabilitation. Occasionally people develop a prolonged, disproportionate pain condition after a limb injury; it is uncommon and treatable, and early physiotherapy is thought to reduce the risk. The treating team weighs all of these when advising whether closed reduction is the right choice, and again at each follow-up.

What people often get wrong about closed reduction

Several myths travel with this procedure, and correcting them prevents a lot of avoidable worry.

“They just yanked it and hoped.” The maneuver looks abrupt because it is efficient, but it is planned from the X-ray, executed under anesthesia and verified by a second X-ray before anyone is discharged. Force is applied along specific lines to reverse the specific way the bone was displaced.

“Once it’s set, the hard part is over.” The reduction is the beginning. Holding the position through the early weeks, keeping the cast intact, attending follow-up imaging and then rebuilding motion afterward are where the outcome is actually determined.

“A cast means the bone is stable, so I can use the arm.” A cast holds the fragments still; it does not make them strong. Lifting, pushing and leaning on a casted limb can shift the reduction. MedlinePlus aftercare advice is explicit that the limb should not bear weight unless the team says otherwise.

“Pain under the cast is just part of it.” Soreness is. Escalating pain, tingling, color change or a cast that feels progressively tighter are warning signs, not things to endure. The NHS plaster-cast guidance frames these as reasons to seek help the same day.

“If it slips, someone made a mistake.” Some fracture patterns are inherently unstable and declare themselves only after the swelling settles. That is why the follow-up X-ray exists. A shift discovered at one week is the system working.

“Closed reduction is always the gentler, safer choice.” It avoids incision and hardware, which are genuine advantages. But for a fracture that will not hold, repeated attempts and a poorly healed bone carry their own costs. Sometimes surgery is the more conservative decision in the sense that matters: the one most likely to produce a functional limb. That judgment belongs to the treating team, informed by the X-ray in front of them, not to a general rule.

Questions to ask your care team before and after closed reduction

A fracture visit is fast and often crowded, and good questions tend to arrive on the drive home. Writing a few down beforehand, or asking a companion to hold them, changes the quality of the conversation. These are the ones that consistently prove useful.

• How displaced is the bone, and what would happen if it were left as it is?
• What kind of anesthesia or pain control are you planning for the reduction, and why that one for me?
• Will I be awake or asleep, and will I remember it?
• Is there a chance the bone will not stay in place, and what would the next step be if it slips?
• Are pins, plates or another procedure being considered as an alternative now, and what would tip the decision?
• Splint or cast first, and when will it be changed?
• When is my follow-up X-ray, and what are you looking for on it?
• Which movements and activities should I avoid completely, and which joints should I keep moving?
• How should I manage swelling and pain in the first days, and which of my regular medicines should I keep taking or pause?
• What signs mean I should come back the same day rather than wait for the appointment?
• When can I expect to drive, return to work or school, and shower normally?
• Will I need physiotherapy after the cast, and who arranges it?

After the cast comes off, a second round is worth asking: how much stiffness is normal, how long strength usually takes to return for a fracture like mine, what activities are safe to resume and which still need protecting, and whether any lingering numbness needs review.

None of these questions second-guesses the team. They give the clinician the chance to explain the reasoning behind a plan that was made quickly, and they give you a clearer sense of what you are watching for. Decisions about anesthesia, fixation and timing remain with the people who can see your X-ray; the questions simply make you a better-informed partner in following them.

When to call your doctor after a closed reduction

Most of the weeks after a closed reduction are uneventful, and most concerns can wait for a scheduled appointment. A short list should not wait. Both MedlinePlus aftercare guidance and NHS plaster-cast advice single out the following as reasons to contact your team the same day or return to the emergency department.

• Pain that is severe, escalating or out of proportion to what you were told to expect, particularly if it does not ease with elevation and the pain relief your team suggested.
• Numbness, tingling or “pins and needles” in the fingers or toes that is new or worsening.
• Fingers or toes that turn pale, blue, dusky or cold, or that you cannot move.
• A cast that feels progressively tighter, or swelling that balloons above or below it.
• Burning or stinging under the cast, or a wet, foul-smelling patch or discharge, which may signal a skin sore.
• A cracked, soft, loose or wet cast, or one that has shifted so the limb moves inside it.
• Fever or feeling generally unwell alongside limb symptoms.
• Calf pain, swelling or warmth in a casted leg, or sudden breathlessness or chest pain, which can indicate a blood clot and need emergency assessment.

Pain that worsens when you stretch your fingers or toes, combined with tightness and numbness, is the classic pattern of rising pressure inside the limb. It is uncommon, but it is an emergency, and the fix is quick if it is caught early. Do not cut or loosen the cast yourself; do get to a department that can.

Less urgent, but still worth a call within a day or two: itching you cannot relieve safely, mild skin irritation at the cast edges, a cast that has become clearly too loose, or any new symptom you are unsure about. Your team would far rather hear from you about a cast that turns out to be fine than not hear about one that is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is closed reduction a major surgery?

No. Closed reduction involves no incision, no implants and no surgical wound, so it is classed as a non-operative procedure. It is still taken seriously because sedation or anesthesia is usually involved, which is why you may face fasting rules and pre-procedure questions. Some reductions are performed in an operating room for access to anesthesia staff and imaging, but that setting alone does not make it an open operation.

How long does a closed reduction procedure take?

The manipulation itself is usually brief once the anesthetic has taken effect, and it is typically the shortest part of the visit. The overall stay is much longer because it includes X-rays before and after, time for pain control to work, cast application and hardening, and observation until you have recovered from sedation. Plan for hours rather than minutes, and arrange someone to take you home.

Is a closed reduction painful?

The reduction is designed not to be painful, and most people describe pressure and pulling rather than sharp pain. Pain control ranges from a local anesthetic injected around the fracture to a regional nerve block, intravenous sedation or general anesthesia, selected by the treating team. Afterward, the deep ache of unstable bone usually eases once the cast holds the fragments still, replaced by soft-tissue soreness that peaks over the first day or two.

What is the difference between closed reduction vs open reduction?

Closed reduction realigns the bone from outside the body, through intact skin, and holds it with a cast or splint. Open reduction is surgery: the surgeon makes an incision, sees the fracture directly, and usually fixes it with plates, screws, rods or wires, a procedure often called ORIF. Closed reduction suits stable displaced fractures with intact skin; open reduction is chosen for open, unstable, multi-fragment or joint-surface fractures.

What is closed reduction and casting, and why is a splint sometimes used first?

Closed reduction and casting means the bone is realigned by hand and then immobilized in a molded cast. A splint, which is rigid on one side and wrapped rather than fully enclosing, is sometimes applied first because early swelling can make a circumferential cast dangerously tight. Once the swelling settles, usually within days, the splint is exchanged for a cast that fits the slimmer limb and holds the reduction more securely.

What is the typical closed reduction recovery time?

Recovery depends on the bone rather than the procedure. The NHS gives around six to eight weeks as typical for many adult arm and wrist fractures to heal, longer for severe breaks, with children usually healing faster. Weight-bearing bones such as the ankle often take longer. After the cast is removed, regaining full motion and strength commonly takes further weeks to months of rehabilitation, and the timeline is guided by follow-up X-rays.

Why do I need another X-ray a week after closed reduction?

Because fragments can shift in the first one to two weeks as swelling subsides and the cast loosens slightly. The follow-up X-ray checks that the reduction has held and that healing is proceeding. If the bone has moved, the team may re-reduce it, accept a minor shift within safe limits, or discuss pins or plates. Finding a shift at this stage is the checkpoint doing its job.

Will I be awake during a closed reduction?

It depends on the anesthesia plan. With a local anesthetic or regional nerve block you stay awake but the area is numb. With intravenous sedation you are drowsy and relaxed, and many people remember little of the reduction afterward. With general anesthesia you are fully asleep, which is more common for children, difficult reductions or those combined with percutaneous pins. The treating team chooses based on the bone and your health.

Can I drive or work after a closed reduction?

Not on the day if you have had sedation or anesthesia; MedlinePlus advises against driving afterward, and departments generally require a responsible adult to take you home. Beyond that, driving and work depend on which limb is casted, what your job involves and local rules about driving with a cast. Ask your team directly, as their advice will reflect your specific fracture and the stability of the reduction.

How is closed reduction different in children?

Children’s bones heal faster and can remodel, meaning a slightly angled fracture may straighten itself as the child grows, so a wider range of alignment is often accepted without reduction. Fractures near the growth plate are monitored closely. When reduction is needed, children are usually fully sedated or given a general anesthetic for comfort and accuracy. Parents are asked to watch finger and toe color, warmth and movement, since children may not report symptoms.

References

• MedlinePlus: Closed reduction of a fractured bone
• MedlinePlus: Closed reduction of a fractured bone – aftercare
• NHS: Broken arm or wrist
• 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.