Fracture Healing, Osteonecrosis & Arthritis Flashcards
What is a fracture defined as?
Discontinuity in the bone with disruptions in cortex, trabecular bone, or both.
How is a bone frature-classified?
Categorised according to:
Anatomical location
Direction of fracture
Whether linear or comminuted (shattered into fragments)
Whether impacted (jammed together)
Whether open or closed
What causes stress fractures?
Repeated stress to a bone may result in an incomplete stress or fatigue fracture which is an accumulation of microfractures leading to a true fracture of the cortex.
How is a stress fracture different to an insufficiency fracture?
Insufficiency fracture is caused by normal stress on abnormal bone whereas a fatigue fracture is abnormal stress on a normal bone
What is a pathological fracture? How is it different to insufficiency fractures?
A fracture caused by primary or secondary neoplasms. This is as opposed to insufficiency fractures which are fractures in bone affected by non-neoplastic disease.
What are the stages of fracture healing?
Inflammatory phase: Disruption to bone, periosteal and soft tissues, haematoma encases bone and fragments, neovascularisation.
Reparative phase: Fibro (soft) to bony (hard) callus formation, cutting cones formed by osteoclasts
Remodelling phase: Restoration of cortex organisation (blood and nerve supply as well as osteoblasts and clasts)
How long does each phase of fracture healing last?
Inflammatory phase: Days
Reparative phase (weeks - months)
Remodelling phase (weeks - years)
What are the 4 most important factors that affect healing of bone fractures?
Wound immobilisation
Vascular supply
Presence of infection
Physical stress
What causes non-union of fractures? What occurs as a result of this?
Can result from soft tissues coming in between the bone fragments, excessive motion or gaps, infection, poor blood supply, malignancy,
Pseudoarthrosis forms (joint-like tissues)
What is osteonecrosis?
All encompassing term for death of bone and marrow in the absence of infections.
What are the features of osteonecrosis?
Caused by changes in the structural integrity and shape of the bone head.
Arthritis:
Similar presentation to osteoarthritis but with a more sudden onset, and in younger populations; AVN is increasingly recognised as a cause of degenerative arthritis.
What is the most common type of osteonecrosis? And what part of the bone is typically affected?
Avascular necrosis, it most commonly affects the end of a long bone and is increasingly recognized as a cause of arthritis.
What causes avascular necrosis?
Vast majority of cases are secondary to trauma
What are the non-traumatic causes of avascular necrosis?
Alcohol consumption
Corticosteroids
Emboli
Infection
Systemic diseases
Thrombosis
Legg-Calve-Perthes
Idiopathic
How can osteonecrosis be diagnosed?
Bone scan (Skeletal scintigraphy)
MRI
What is Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease?
A paediatric condition which causes osteonecrosis of the hip
How is Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease managed?
Management depends on age and severity:
Osteotomy
Conservative containment using brace, slings and springs, broomstick plasters
What cells are found more abundantly in osteonecrosis?
Osteoclasts
Necrosis of bone and growth cartilage
How does necrotic bone heal?
Necrotic bone heals differently in trabecular and cortical bone
Trabecular bone heals by ‘creeping substitution’ which means necrotic marrow is replaced by invading neovascular tissue. (Bone remodelling and intramembranous ossification)
Cortical bone heals by “cutting cones” where osteoclasts bore holes into the necrotic cortex via vascular channels with osteoblasts trailing forming new lamellar bone
Who gets osteonecrosis of the jaw?
Exposed bone of the mandilble/maxilla that fails to heal 8-weeks after a patient has received systemic bisphosphonates and who has not undergone local radiation therapy to the jaw.