Humerus Fracture

Humerus Fracture is a topic covered in the 5-Minute Emergency Consult.

To view the entire topic, please or .

Emergency Central is a collection of disease, drug, and test information including 5-Minute Emergency Medicine Consult, Davis’s Drug, McGraw-Hill Medical’s Diagnosaurus®, Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests, and MEDLINE Journals created for emergency medicine professionals. Explore these free sample topics:

-- The first section of this topic is shown below --

Basics

Description

  • Proximal humeral fractures:
    • Typically described as nondisplaced, displaced, or fracture/dislocation
    • Increased incidence with age
    • Female to male predominance
    • Third most common osteoporotic fracture, after hip and distal radius fractures
    • Neer classification: A system that identifies the location, number of fragments, displacement, and angulation of the fracture or fracture/dislocation
  • Humeral shaft fractures:
    • Account for <3% of fractures
    • May be spiral, oblique, or transverse
    • Bimodal age distribution
    • Humeral shaft fractures (AO classification):
      • Simple
      • Wedge
      • Comminuted (complex)

Etiology

  • Proximal humerus fractures:
    • Most often a history of a fall (low energy)
    • Most common is fall on outstretched hand
    • Less common is violent muscle contraction from shock or seizure or higher-energy injury
  • Humeral shaft fractures:
    • High-energy direct trauma (penetrating or blunt) or bending force
    • Less common from fall
    • Stress fractures from throwing injury

-- To view the remaining sections of this topic, please or --

Basics

Description

  • Proximal humeral fractures:
    • Typically described as nondisplaced, displaced, or fracture/dislocation
    • Increased incidence with age
    • Female to male predominance
    • Third most common osteoporotic fracture, after hip and distal radius fractures
    • Neer classification: A system that identifies the location, number of fragments, displacement, and angulation of the fracture or fracture/dislocation
  • Humeral shaft fractures:
    • Account for <3% of fractures
    • May be spiral, oblique, or transverse
    • Bimodal age distribution
    • Humeral shaft fractures (AO classification):
      • Simple
      • Wedge
      • Comminuted (complex)

Etiology

  • Proximal humerus fractures:
    • Most often a history of a fall (low energy)
    • Most common is fall on outstretched hand
    • Less common is violent muscle contraction from shock or seizure or higher-energy injury
  • Humeral shaft fractures:
    • High-energy direct trauma (penetrating or blunt) or bending force
    • Less common from fall
    • Stress fractures from throwing injury

There's more to see -- the rest of this entry is available only to subscribers.