EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -If you happen to fall from a ladder and land on your arm, breaking it, you’ll know it’s a compound fracture if you can see the bone. “Simple” or “closed” fractures don’t break through your skin. Compound fractures are extremely painful.

Detailed explanation-2: -Open fracture (also called compound fracture): The bone pokes through the skin and can be seen, or a deep wound exposes the bone through the skin. Closed fracture (also called simple fracture). The bone is broken, but the skin is intact.

Detailed explanation-3: -If the bone breaks in such a way that bone fragments stick out through the skin, or a wound penetrates down to the broken bone, the fracture is called an open fracture. This type of fracture is particularly serious because once the skin is broken, infection in both the wound and the bone can occur.

Detailed explanation-4: -An open fracture is a broken bone that penetrates the skin. This is an important distinction because when a broken bone penetrates the skin there is a need for immediate treatment, and an operation is often required to clean the area of the fracture.