What is an impacted fracture?

• A. broken bone with no open wound
• B. bone comes through the skin
• C. fracture in which one bone fragment is pushed into another
• D. broken bone portion is pressed inward, typical of skull fracture

Answer: (C)

An impacted fracture occurs when one end of a broken bone is driven into another part of the bone, causing compression and overlap of the fragments. This describes a situation where the fragments are jammed together rather than simply separated, which is the hallmark of an impacted fracture. The other descriptions refer to different injury patterns: a closed fracture means there’s no open wound but doesn’t specify how the fragments relate to each other; an open fracture means bone is exposed through the skin; and a depressed skull fracture involves bone pushed inward on the skull, a different pattern than the classic jammed, compressed fracture in other bones.