Backwoods Surgery Medicine #233753

Pain following an injury that might pro duce a fracture is not necessarily proof posi tive of the existence of a fracture. Pain may and often does follow a bruise, sprain, or dislocation, in a greater degree than that following a fracture. Loss of motion, too, is quite as marked in dislocations and severe sprains as in fractures. Change of contour, unless in the locality of prominent joints, is quite a valuable sign. The fractured limb, except in certain rare cases, will show a change in the appearance of its general out line. By crepitation is meant that characteristic grating sound produced by rubbing the two ends of the fractured bone together It is the one absolute sign of a fracture, and once heard can never be forgotten. It may be likened to the sound produced by rubbing two or three coarse hairs between the finger and thumb.