How to distinguish a bruise from a cracked finger. Types of fractures in a child and how to recognize them

You will never confuse a displaced fracture with anything, much less an open fracture, when bone fragments are visible from the wound. In these cases, the deformation of the damaged part of the body is immediately noticeable. It is clear that you cannot do without medical help: you need to give the bones the correct position, fix them securely, and if there is an open wound, treat it. Such fractures usually occur when the arms and legs are injured.

Much more often you have to deal with less obvious injuries: there was a strong blow or fall, the bruised area hurts, swells, a hematoma appears, it is difficult to move, but it is not clear whether the bones are damaged, or whether it is just a soft tissue bruise. Usually such doubts arise:

when you hit your toe on the leg of a cabinet or bed,
you twist your ankle slipping on the ice,
when there is a blow to the chest or shoulder, when there is a risk of fracture of the ribs or collarbone,
during awkward jumps from a height, when pain appears in the spine
when falling on your hip.

If at the time of injury you did not hear an ominous crunch, and after you came to your senses, you did not find any visible deformations on your body, it will be quite difficult to determine the severity of the injury. What criteria are used for this?

Signs of a fracture

There is an opinion that a fracture hurts more than a bruise. In fact, this is not so. Pain receptors are the same everywhere: in the muscles, skin and ligaments, and in the periosteum. Therefore, it makes no sense to diagnose based on the intensity of pain. Moreover, some fractures hardly hurt, and at first a person may not even be aware of the severity of what happened. This, for example, happens in older people with certain types of femoral neck fractures.

The second sign is tissue swelling and the size of the hematoma (bruise). Indeed, fractures are usually accompanied by more massive damage, which means significant swelling and more bruising. Moreover, swelling and hematoma can increase within several hours after the fall and even the next day. But there are also exceptions. For example, with bruises of parts of the body where there is little fatty tissue, but many blood vessels (chest, ankle, front surface of the leg, head and face). The site of the injury literally swells before our eyes, and then this huge hematoma can also slide down under the influence of gravity, painting the skin in different shades of crimson and blue-green over a considerable distance. The consequences of such injuries look scary, although the bones are intact and nothing threatens health. Conversely, with bone fractures hidden under a thick layer of muscle, swelling may be barely noticeable, and bruising may be completely absent.

The third sign is impaired movement in the damaged part of the body. When a bone is fractured, it loses strength, which means it does not fulfill its supporting function, so movement is impossible. However, this rule does not work for subperiosteal fractures, bone cracks and impacted fractures.

Thus, to assert unfoundedly that this is just a bruise or a whole fracture in most cases is stupid. You can be wrong with a 50/50 chance. The only way to accurately diagnose is an x-ray. Another question is how dangerous are such fractures? Can they seriously harm your health if their symptoms are so similar to a regular bruise?

Should you see a doctor if you suspect a fracture?

In most cases, minor fractures heal on their own, without examination, casting or medical care. To do this, it is enough to spare the place of impact and ensure its immobility. In the practice of traumatologists, there are often cases when a patient, having taken an x-ray of a fresh fracture, learns that there is a healed one nearby, which he had no idea about before. But such injuries do not always pass without consequences.

A case from one's life. The bathhouse attendant was clearing ice from the steps when he slipped and hit his chest painfully. The wife’s feminine intuition told her that it was better to play it safe and call an ambulance. However, the paramedic, having arrived to the call, suggested that the man once again not “shine” on the X-ray - anyway, plaster is not applied to fractured ribs. I left everything as it was and left. In the morning, turning awkwardly, the man felt a prick in his chest and began to inflate like a balloon. A few minutes later it became difficult to breathe. If it were not for the prompt work of another team of doctors, the bath attendant would have died from pneumothorax - a lung injury caused by a rib fragment that damaged soft tissue. The bathhouse attendant returned to work after the operation in mid-spring, when there was no longer any need to clear the ice from the steps.

No less dangerous situations arise with impacted fractures of the femoral neck if you fall on your side with a swing. External signs of injury may be minor, the pain may be tolerable, which allows the person to continue walking and even running. But at a certain point, bone fragments may shift, which significantly aggravates the condition. Firstly, surgery will be required to compare them, and secondly, complete destruction of the femoral head is possible due to impaired blood supply. And the result is prosthetics or complete immobility.

A compression fracture of the spine can lead to chronic back pain, paresis and paralysis due to compression of the intervertebral nerves and even the spinal cord. Failure to pay attention to a broken toe can subsequently lead to deformation of the toe. And you will no longer be able to wear dress shoes.

Of course, all of these complications are rare. Therefore, in extreme cases, you can rely on luck and not seek medical help; the chance of “licking the wounds” on your own in case of uncomplicated fractures is quite high. But still, if you hurt yourself not at the end of the world, but somewhere in civilization, it is better to take a picture at any nearest emergency room. And in the event of a fracture, take all necessary measures to ensure its speedy healing.

A fracture and a bruise have similar symptoms, but the treatment and consequences for both injuries are different. It is difficult to distinguish from a fracture, as well as to understand the nature of the injury when hit with the edge of the palm, on the nose or in the back. Due to the damage, soft tissue, ligaments and bone structures can be damaged. And if there are diseases of the musculoskeletal system, then even a small impact is enough to cause serious injury.

The reason for deformation of bone structures and compression of soft tissues can be the same impact. , as well as, are received in a fall, direct impact, or during an accident. A bruise or fracture may be the result of unsuccessful sports training. Often leg injuries complement each other: a crack, dislocation, rupture of ligaments, extensive bruising - all this occurs simultaneously under intense mechanical stress.

Foot injuries are always more difficult to diagnose. If a person steps on his foot unsuccessfully, then it seems that it should not happen, but this does not exclude the appearance of cracks. Similar disturbances are caused by heavy objects falling from above. You can injure your finger while walking - by tripping over a stone or other object.

As for the classic manifestations of a bruise, these are:

pain– most acute at the time of injury, after a few hours sensations in the affected areas become dull;
swelling– spreads throughout the day, then decreases;
hematoma– develops gradually, reaches a maximum in the first day, then resolves.

The next symptoms are temporary stiffness, numbness or tingling, and local hyperemia.

Severe pain, difficulty moving, redness. These are all signs of a broken toe. However, similar manifestations can occur in some other cases, for example, when a finger is bruised or sprained. Meanwhile, correctly diagnosing an injury is very important, because the tactics of first aid and further treatment depend on it.

Determining a fracture or bruise of a toe is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. There are several signs to look out for:

An injured finger with a fracture is particularly painful. It does not subside over time and intensifies with palpation. A bruised toe is becoming less of a concern every hour.
The victim may notice swelling from a broken toe only after a few days. The bruise is characterized by immediate swelling, which over the next 8-12 hours significantly decreases or disappears altogether.
You can find out whether a fracture or bruise occurs in a particular case by comparing the same toes on both feet. Deformation changes during a fracture visually make the finger smaller.
If the integrity of the bone is broken, it is difficult to move the foot. In most cases, a bruised toe does not interfere with normal movement. The victim can call a taxi or an ambulance and get to the hospital himself.

Main signs of a finger fracture

All the symptoms that make it possible to determine what exactly happened to the finger: a bruise or a fracture, can be divided into two large groups:

reliable;
probable.

The first group includes the following symptoms:

visual reduction of one finger, which was not observed before;
deformation of the phalanx of the leg;
upon palpation, a broken fragment or part of the bone is felt;
the finger bends in places where it could not bend before.

The second group includes signs that do not directly indicate a fracture. This may include:

Sharp pain in the damaged area (pain after a fracture or bruise of a finger is tolerable, the person does not lose consciousness, as is the case with fractures of other parts of the leg). This is due to two special processes. In the acute period, already in the first seconds after the injury, a sharp pain concerns the periosteum area. A few hours after the injury, the victim begins to complain of prolonged dull pain. Bursting pain concerns those cases when swelling occurs after a violation of integrity.
Increased pain when palpating the damaged area, especially if you tap on the fingertip.
Feeling of local temperature rising;
Complication of movement in the damaged joint (not always);
Severe swelling.

In order to determine the type of injury and its complexity, first of all, you need to conduct an external examination and observe the changes for 5 minutes. An injured foot should be examined with extreme caution. You need to run your fingers along the entire bone.

Displaced finger fracture

A closed fracture with phalangeal displacement is rare in adults. This phenomenon can only occur as a result of a very severe injury; it is also accompanied by smearing of muscles and ligaments.

Since bone tissue in children is more elastic, the displacement during a fracture in the little finger has an angular appearance. Moving to the side, ligaments and cartilage also pull bone fragments from them. Thus, timely diagnosis is difficult; the finger is relatively slightly deformed and often grows together in this position.

How to identify a violation of bone integrity if there is no displacement

When determining a fracture, doctors can immediately differentiate it in accordance with the classification accepted in medicine:

in the direction of the fracture - oblong or transverse;
according to the type of fracture line - screw, oblique;
according to the fault mechanism - direct and indirect.

Of course, it is possible to make an accurate diagnosis only after an x-ray, but in order to suspect an injury, you can palpate the site of injury. First, the movements should be oblong, and then transverse and oblique.

When trying to listen to your feelings, you need to take into account that there may be several fractures, as well as the number of fragments. You can break a finger without them if you fall straight on your foot. Several fragments can occur as a result of a blunt and smooth object falling on the leg. The bone is broken into small fragments when an uneven object impacts the finger.

Bruised finger and how it manifests itself

If a fracture of a finger concerns a violation of the normal structure of the bone itself, then a bruise is a pathology that happens to soft tissues. Such an injury occurs in the event of a strong blow. In this case, the skin is not damaged. A bruised finger can occur simultaneously with a sprain or bone fracture. The main symptoms of damaged soft tissue are:

the presence of a hematoma is a blue or even black spot that is visible from under the skin and is an accumulation of a small amount of blood;
swelling in the damaged area;
slight difficulty in mobility;
pain that intensifies during palpation or movement (occurs due to pressure on the problem area of a certain amount of blood).

The condition of the victim, meanwhile, does not show significant changes. In most cases, the hematoma resolves on its own. Rarely do blood clots have to be removed solely by surgery.

According to statistics, a fracture occurs less frequently than a bruise on the little toe. How to distinguish other injuries from a broken toe can be found in medical literature or on the Internet. However, an accurate diagnosis must only be made by a traumatologist. He also deals with the treatment of all pathological changes after injury.

You can get injured literally at every step. Both adults and children are at risk. And it doesn’t matter whether you are involved in a dangerous sport or just going to the kitchen to drink water - one awkward movement can lead to a blow, sprain or fracture. Therefore, you need to know how to act with the victim in various situations. The algorithm for providing first aid directly depends on the type of injury. But an inexperienced person is not always able to correctly recognize the type of damage. How can you distinguish a fracture from a bruise? This is one of the most difficult questions for those learning first aid. Let's try to find the answer.

What is a bruise?

A bruise is an internal injury to tissues or organs that is not accompanied by a violation of the integrity of the skin. This type of injury can be the result of a fracture, dislocation or sprain. A bruise appears as a result of a fall or a strong blow. Soft tissues and organs located in the injured area suffer. At the site of the impact, a hematoma is formed - an accumulation of liquid or coagulated blood. If the bruise of an arm or leg was severe, the tissue around the bruise swells, impairing the mobility of the limb.

What is a fracture?

Fracture is a complete or partial disruption of the integrity of bone or cartilage. Accompanied by injury to surrounding tissues: muscles, skin, blood vessels, nerve endings. Fractures can occur for two reasons:

as a result of exposure to external forces on the bone that can disrupt the strength of the skeleton;

with minor injury, if a person suffers from a disease that changes the structure of bone tissue.

The fracture can be open or closed. With the first type of injury, the skin is injured and severe bleeding occurs. The damaged bone is visible on the surface. In type 2 injury, the skin remains intact and there is no external bleeding. A hematoma may appear.
The symptoms of a bruise and a closed fracture are very similar. At first glance, both injuries do not have any features other than a bruise. Therefore, people have a question: “How to distinguish a fracture from a blow?”

Learning to distinguish a fracture from a blow

Understanding how to distinguish a fracture from a blow is not as difficult as it might seem. Main signs:

If a person has a fracture, the pain makes itself felt for several hours. May get worse over time. When bruised, the pain gradually subsides.

In case of a fracture, the swelling of the damaged area increases for 2-3 days. When hit, it appears immediately after impact.

If the integrity of the limb bone is damaged, it is impossible to carry out motor activity due to severe pain. For example, if your hand is injured, you cannot clench your fist. If your leg is injured, you cannot straighten it completely.

When a fracture occurs with a displaced bone, the limb may be deformed. Its length may also change compared to a healthy one.

To understand what type of injury a person has, you need to press on the damaged area in the longitudinal direction. If an arm or leg is injured, ask the patient to carefully place weight on it. If there is a fracture, there will be a sharp pain in the damaged area.
If you cannot independently determine what type of injury the victim has, you should not try to provide first aid. It is better to wait for the doctor to arrive.

How to distinguish a fracture from a bruised finger?

It is not so easy to understand from external signs what type of injury the victim has. Both with a closed fracture and with an impact, the same symptoms appear:

swelling appears on the affected area;

the skin turns blue;

the injured area hurts.

You can distinguish a fracture of the little finger from a blow by the following signs:

the length of the damaged phalanx has changed;

there is a constant sharp pain in the finger;

When palpated, bone deformation can be detected.

If there is a bruise, pain in the finger will occur during physical activity. It will go away in a couple of days. If the patient has a fracture, the pain will only increase over time. The swelling will also become stronger. How to distinguish a fracture from a blow yourself? Practical experience is important here. There is always a chance that a person without medical education will make a mistake. Therefore, you should not treat yourself. It would be a good idea to visit the hospital and undergo an X-ray examination to get an accurate diagnosis.

Fracture or bruise of a toe - how to tell?

You can distinguish a fracture of the little toe from a blow by the same signs as the type of damage to the phalanx of the hand. There is constant pain that becomes unbearable within a few days. The swelling gradually increases. The finger becomes shorter. When palpated, a protrusion of the bone may be detected. If the fracture is displaced, severe deformation of the finger will be noticeable. If a toe is bruised, it will be difficult for the victim to place weight on the injured limb. As in the case of a bruised phalanx on the arm, acute pain will appear during physical activity, which will quickly pass if treated correctly. We figured out how to distinguish a fracture from a bruised toe or hand. Now let's find out how to properly provide first aid.

Actions when a limb is struck

You can provide first aid by following the algorithm below:

apply a cold compress or ice wrapped in a cloth to the site of the impact;

if there is damage to the skin, treat the wound with an antiseptic and apply a bandage;

For severe pain, take anesthetics.

Treat bruises with special anti-inflammatory ointments. They relieve swelling, promote hematoma resorption and relieve pain. The recovery period after an impact lasts 7-14 days.
If a hematoma formed after an impact does not go away for a long time, it is recommended to consult a doctor. In rare cases, surgical intervention is required to cope with the disease.

How to help with a broken finger?

First aid for a fracture is of great importance for further treatment. It is important not to make the situation worse. First of all, with a closed fracture of the finger, you need to immobilize it. To do this, a tire is made from scrap materials. A pen, an ice cream stick, or a twig will do. The splint is placed on the inside of the finger and secured with a sterile bandage or any other cloth.
If the fracture is open, you need to treat the wound with an antiseptic: Chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide, Miramistin. If there is bleeding, apply a gauze bandage or cotton swab to the damaged area. Then the injured finger is fixed. To relieve pain symptoms, use "Analgin", "Ketanov", "Nurofen". If you have a fracture, you should definitely consult a doctor. It is impossible to cope with such trauma on your own. You learned how to distinguish a fracture from a blow. We became familiar with first aid techniques for injuring a finger or toe. By following the instructions, you can easily help the victim. But if you are not confident in your abilities, you should not touch the injured limb. Incorrectly provided first aid will only worsen the patient’s condition.

Date of publication: 05/23/17

Fractures and bruises are the most common injuries to people of all genders and ages. The causes of these injuries are varied, occurring both at home and during sports, road traffic accidents or at work. To avoid unpleasant consequences, it is important to be able to accurately diagnose these injuries, since quite often a bruise is mistaken for a bone fracture and vice versa. The choice of first aid method and further treatment of the injury depend on the accuracy of the diagnosis, because these very methods differ quite significantly.

Signs of a fracture

A fracture is a damage to bone tissue, accompanied by a violation of the periosteum, or without this accompaniment. Fractures can be closed, when the skin at the site of injury is not damaged by bone fragments, or open, when the integrity of the skin is broken by bone fragments (roughly speaking, bone is visible in an open wound). Damage to muscles, blood vessels, nerves and tendons is possible with both types of fractures.

Depending on the fracture line, they are divided into:

splintered,
transverse,
longitudinal,
helical,
regional and many others.

Almost any fracture can occur either with or without displacement of bone fragments. The easiest thing to confuse with a bruise is a marginal or any other non-displaced fracture.

At the moment of fracture, severe pain occurs, since the periosteum is equipped with a huge number of pain receptors, the irritation of which causes pain.

Note:

Bruises are also accompanied by pain, but it gradually subsides, while with fractures the pain syndrome either persists for a long time or intensifies. Maximum amplification occurs when attempting to move the injured part of the body.

If you have a hand injury, it is almost impossible to clench your hand into a fist or grasp an object. Severe pain will not allow you to lean on your injured leg. When a rib is fractured, acute pain occurs when inhaling or turning the body. But there are a number of injuries in which functional impairment is rather weakly expressed. For example, impacted fractures of the femur or humerus, fracture of the metatarsal, fibula.

Important! In some cases, for example, when an athlete's adrenaline levels are off the charts, pain may not be felt at all.

Swelling may appear almost instantly, or may increase over time. The duration of a bruise or hematoma depends on the volume of muscle tissue surrounding the injury: the greater the muscle mass, the later the bruise will appear. With some types of fractures, soft tissue damage does not occur, and a hematoma with swelling does not develop.

Features of diagnosing various types of fractures

Open fractures are the easiest to diagnose. Even a person who does not have a medical education, seeing bone fragments in a wound, will be able to accurately make the correct diagnosis.

It is very easy to determine a displaced fracture: the limb at the fracture site is deformed in the axial or longitudinal projection. With longitudinal deformation, shortening or lengthening of the limb is observed. Axial displacement is determined by significant curvature of the damaged part of the body:

The bone is damaged quite badly;
the so-called “false joint” is determined, in which the bending angle is very large;
pathological mobility is observed at the fracture site.

Some types of comminuted fractures are detected by careful palpation, during which crepitus (crunching, like the crunch of snow) is felt. It is strictly prohibited to deliberately provoke crepitus and displace fragments of damaged bones, since these actions can lead to additional injury to the periosteum and surrounding soft tissues.

The greatest difficulty is in diagnosing closed fractures:

A limb fracture can be preliminarily determined using axial load syndrome, in which there is not much pressure on the limb in the longitudinal direction.
In the case of the lower extremities, a light tap on the heel with a fist is used, which provokes pain in the area of the injury.
Fractures of the arms are detected in the same way, only pressure is applied to the wrist or fingers.

With bruises, axial syndrome shows negative results.

Important! It should be especially noted that a fracture can be definitively diagnosed only after an X-ray examination.

Signs of bruise

A bruise is a closed-type compression injury to the soft tissues of the human body. The skin, subcutaneous fat and muscles are subject to injury, but their integrity is not compromised at all.

The main symptom of a bruise is pain that appears during the injury and gradually subsides. Any bruise is accompanied by swelling, which develops during the first day, then gradually decreases and disappears. If swelling occurs, the motor functions of muscles and nearby joints may be impaired.

Note:

The main difficulty in diagnosis is that such symptoms are typical for closed fractures without displacement, and without fluoroscopy or tomography it is simply not possible to establish an accurate diagnosis.

First aid for bruises consists of immobilizing the injured part of the body using a splint or a fixing bandage. Then, during the first 24 hours, cold is applied and pain relief therapy is administered. Subsequently, all symptoms of bruises gradually disappear. In especially severe cases, heat is prescribed to the damaged area and other physiotherapeutic procedures.

To summarize all of the above, we can summarize that the patient’s injured part of the body must be immobilized as much as possible and seek qualified help from a traumatologist as quickly as possible. Only in a medical institution will specialists make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe effective treatment.