Bone Healing - Physiology and Process of Healing

Physiology and Process of Healing

In the process of fracture healing, several phases of recovery facilitate the proliferation and protection of the areas surrounding fractures and dislocations. The length of the process depends on the extent of the injury, and usual margins of two to three weeks are given for the reparation of most upper bodily fractures; anywhere above four weeks given for lower bodily injury.

The process of the entire regeneration of the bone can depend on the angle of dislocation or fracture. While the bone formation usually spans the entire duration of the healing process, in some instances, bone marrow within the fracture has healed two or fewer weeks before the final remodeling phase.

While immobilization and surgery may facilitate healing, a fracture ultimately heals through physiological processes. The healing process is mainly determined by the periosteum (the connective tissue membrane covering the bone). The periosteum is one source of precursor cells which develop into chondroblasts and osteoblasts that are essential to the healing of bone. The bone marrow (when present), endosteum, small blood vessels, and fibroblasts are other sources of precursor cells.

Read more about this topic:  Bone Healing

Famous quotes containing the words physiology and, physiology, process and/or healing:

    Now the twitching stops. Now you are still. We are through with physiology and theology, physics begins.
    Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)

    A physician’s physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric’s divinity has to his power of influencing conduct.
    Samuel Butler (1835–1902)

    The process of education in the oldest profession in the world is like any other educational process, in that it requires time and effort and patience; it can only be acquired by taking one step at a time, though the steps become accelerated after the first few.
    Madeleine [Blair], U.S. prostitute and “madam.” Madeleine, ch. 4 (1919)

    War has always been the great wisdom of all those spirits who have grown too inward, too deep; its healing power lies even in the wound.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)