Can I Have a Fracture and Not Know It?

On a global scale, the incidence of fractures can be measured in the hundreds of millions each year. While some broken bones are hard to ignore, others are more subtle, and you can even miss them.

Finding someone who hasn’t broken a bone is more of an exception than the rule. Backing this up, an analysis from 2019 reported 178 million fractures worldwide that year.

Most broken bones are fairly obvious and hard to ignore, prompting people to seek help right away. Yet, there are times when fractures can be less obvious and stay hidden, which is troublesome if they go untreated, as they can get worse.

As primary and urgent care providers who see our fair share of injuries, including fractures, the team at Michigan Avenue Primary Care would like to address the subject of less obvious fractures and some key signs to be aware of.

There are fractures, and then there are stress fractures

While the concept of a broken bone might seem straightforward, there are different types of fractures, such as:

Transverse — the break is clean and goes straight across
Comminuted — multiple fractures at the same site
Spiral — a fracture that winds up around the bone
Compound — a serious fracture that breaks the skin

Each of these categories describes the type of break, and they’re all acute injuries that are fairly obvious when they occur.

There is another type of fracture, however, that develops gradually and over time — stress fractures. As the name suggests, stress fractures develop due to overstressing a bone. Often, these fractures begin as bone bruises, but eventually, the bone develops hairline cracks.

Stress fractures can develop in any bone, but they tend to crop up in your:

Feet
Lower legs
Hips
Hands
Wrists

It should also come as no surprise that stress fractures are found more in active people — about 20% of sports injuries are stress fractures.

Stress fractures can also develop along the spine, especially as people get older. A good example of this is compression fractures in your spine — a vertebra slowly collapses due to bone loss.

Signs of a stress fracture

Because we’re discussing more subtle fractures, the signs of a stress fracture are far less severe than an acute break. In most cases, people experience:

Dull pain
Pain that increases with activity
Tenderness to the touch
Mild and ongoing swelling

These symptoms can be mild enough that people ignore them and continue to use the affected area, which, as you might imagine, isn’t allowing the bone to heal. As a result, these symptoms can get worse over time, which should prompt you to seek help.

Signs of compression fractures

We also want to quickly outline some signs of compression fractures in your spine, which include:

Back pain
Loss of height
A growing hump in your spine
Stooping forward

We want to note that some people don’t experience pain in their back with compression fractures, but they do develop other changes, such as hunching forward.

Getting help for your fracture

The takeaway here is that not all broken bones are obvious. Stress and compression fractures are more gradual, and the symptoms may be less attention-getting, but if they’re not going away or getting worse, it’s time to get help.

You should also bear in mind that even an acute fracture can be mild, and you might think you’re dealing with a sprain at first. If your symptoms continue to nag at you, however, that’s a sign you should investigate the injury further.

The good news is that we can quickly determine what you’re dealing with through our advanced imaging, which will help you get on the right road to rehabilitation.

If you’re at all on the fence about whether you have a fracture, please err on the side of caution and come see us. To get started, you can contact us at our Chicago, Illinois, clinic, which is located in The Loop, to schedule an appointment. You can also visit our urgent care center during operating hours, Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4 pm.