When a fracture is suspected, the patient should seek immediate medical care. If the injury appears to be serious, an ambulance should be called. Less serious injuries can be stabilized through the following steps:

• Remove clothing from the injured area. If necessary, use scissors to remove clothing rather than trying to force an injured limb through a sleeve or pant leg.
  
  
• Apply a cold compress or an ice pack wrapped in cloth to the area.
  
  
• Place a makeshift splint on the injured body part. This should consist of soft padding around the injured part and be taped together with something firm, such as a board or rolled-up newspaper. The firm piece should extend above and below the injured part to help keep it in place.
  
  
• Seek medical care. Avoid eating in case surgery is needed.

The body itself begins the first step in the treatment of a fracture. When a fracture occurs, the body forms a protective blood clot and callus or fibrous tissue. New bone cells begin to grow on either side of the fracture line and eventually grow toward each other. This closes the fracture and the callus is absorbed.

To aid this natural healing process, physicians may use casts, splints, pins or other devices to hold a fracture in the correct position while it heals. The two major types of immobilization devices are:

• External fixation methods. Include plaster and fiberglass casts, cast-braces, splints and other devices. Casts are usually used on fractures, as they encircle the injury and keep it completely fixed in place. However, less serious fractures may require less stringent forms of immobilization, such as a splint (which supports the fractured bone on one side only).
  
  
• Internal fixation methods. Use metal plates, pins or bone screws to hold the broken pieces of bone in proper position during healing.

In cases of a displaced fracture - where the bone breaks and comes out of alignment - the bone will need to be set back in the right position. This is known as a closed reduction, and it is performed before casting, splinting or other similar procedures. In more serious cases, surgery may be necessary to successfully realign the bone.

Patients who have casts placed around arm fractures will sometimes be given a sling. This is a piece of cloth with a strap that loops around the back of the neck. Patients place their arm in the cloth, which rests over the chest and abdomen. Slings make it easier for people to support the weight of the cast. Patients who have casts placed around a leg may be given crutches to help them keep weight off the affected leg.

Some fractures, such as a broken hip due to osteoporosis, may require joint replacement. Vertebral fractures may also require surgery.

Fractures usually take anywhere from several weeks to several months to heal. However, pain typically subsides enough to allow the patient to resume using the bone in normal activities long before the fracture has healed.

Stress fractures often require less treatment than traditional fractures and can be healed with cryotherapy and rest. However, casts, splints and surgery all are sometimes used to treat more significant stress fractures.