Importance of bruising associated with paediatric fractures: prospective observational study

Abstract

Editorial by Eastwood Few data are published on the bruising seen in association with paediatric fractures. What little can be found is set in the context of non-accidental injury. Differing opinions about the importance of bruising have been expressed by those working on medicolegal cases. 1–3 The force necessary to fracture a normal bone is thought to result invariably in external evidence of trauma. 1 The absence of such bruising has been taken to imply that minimalforce was required to produce the fracture—that is, the fracture occurred because of metabolic bone disease or osteogenesis imperfecta. 2 3 We prospectively assessed 93 acute fractures in 88 normal …