Polite Dissent

Teen Titans #26 “Soul Searching”
Geoff Johns, writer
Tony Daniel, artist

A quick and simple lesson on fractures.

Batman to Superman: You know what he did to Robin. His right arm suffered a comminuted fracture. Superboy crushed his bones.

Kudos to Johns for getting his broken bone terminology correct. A comminuted fracture is one where the bone is broken into multiple pieces (too many writers confuse this with a compound fracture, which is completely different).

Here’s a brief primer on some common types of fractures:

• Closed fracture
  A broken bone when the skin over the fracture site is intact. The opposite of an open fracture.
• Comminuted fracture
  A fracture that is broken into more than two pieces.
• Compound Fracture
  An older name for an open fracture.
• Greenstick Fracture
  A fracture that does not go all the way through the bone. Think of what happens when you bend a freshly-cut tree branch: part of the stick breaks, but the rest just bends under the pressure. This is where the name “greenstick fracture” came from. They are more common in children because their bones are much more flexible than adult bones.
• Open fracture
  A fracture where the bone has broken through the skin or where there is a communication between the fracture and the skin. These have a high rate of infection. Generally, any person who suffers a broken bone with a concomitant skin injury is assumed to have an open fracture until proven otherwise.
• Simple fracture
  An older term for a closed fracture.
• Spiral Fracture
  A fracture where the bone has been twisted apart with rotational force. Often a sign of abuse in children.