Trauma

Traumatology is the study of wounds and injuries caused by accidents or violence to a person, and the surgical treatment and repair of the damage. Traumatology is a branch of medicine. It is often considered a subset of surgery and in countries without the specialty of trauma surgery it is most often a subspecialty to orthopedic surgery. Traumatology may also be known as accident surgery.

Bone Fracture Considerations

• Fracture implants must be designed and installed with care. Stress shielding occurs when plates or screws carry too large of a portion of the bone's load, causing atrophy. This problem is reduced, but not eliminated, by the use of low-modulus materials, including titanium and its alloys.
• The heat generated by the friction of installing hardware can easily accumulate and damage bone tissue, reducing the strength of the connections.
• If dissimilar metals are installed in contact with one another (i.e., a titanium plate with cobalt-chromium alloy or stainless steel screws), galvanic corrosion will result. The metal ions produced can damage the bone locally and may cause systemic effects as well.

Special considerations for children

In children, whose bones are still developing, there are risks of either a growth plate injury or a greenstick fracture.

• A greenstick fracture occurs because the bone is not as brittle as it would be in an adult, and thus does not completely fracture, but rather exhibits bowing without complete disruption of the bone's cortex.
• Growth plate injuries require careful treatment and accurate reduction to make sure that the bone continues to grow normally.
• Plastic deformation of the bone, in which the bone permanently bends but does not break, is also possible in children. These injuries may require an osteotomy to realign the bone if it is fixed and cannot be realigned by closed methods.