Was talking to a friend of mine who’s managed to fracture his finger. He originally thought he’d simply dislocated it, but after he relocated it and it carried on hurting like heck for 5 further days, he thought it might be an idea to go to the hospital to get it checked out. The hospital have told him he’s suffered an “occlusion fracture”, but have given him no further information as to what that is. Googling has been unsuccessful, so I’m turning you Dopers to help me out here – what is it? I’m certainly at a loss…
I am unfamiliar with the use of this term in this situation, and since I am pretty old and have diagnosed a lot of fractures, I am assuming it is not a commonly used term here in the US. Of course I am always delighted to expend one of my two remaining neurons on a new fact.
There is such a thing as a bony occlusion–an area where bone has expanded into what is usually a canal of some type. The term “fracture” doesn’t apply.
There is such a thing as a bony inclusion–could be almost anything that isn’t supposed to be there (a cyst, for instance). The proper term for a fracture in this type of situation is a pathologic fracture, because the bone has been weakened by abnormal pathology.
I suspect he misheard and I think avulsion fracture is a good guess, especially if the finger seemed to have a joint that was out of place. It’s common for a shard of bone to get pulled off in such a situation. Most of the time treatment is simple splinting or buddy taping except in special cases such as a mallet finger.
Cheers guys, looks like it is indeed an avulsion fracture. Even reading the descriptions are making me cringe. :eek: