[Fracture management during bone growth]

In treating fractures in children, there have been more and more demands for the primary treatment to be definitively planned, i.e., for a conclusive order of events to be laid down so as to exclude the necessity for re-reductions or a change of therapy. Long-term conservative methods of treatment are becoming less and acceptable to parents and children. From the psychosocial point of view, the aim must be to avoid extensive periods of hospitalization or bedrest in traction and to dispense with repeated anesthesia for re-reduction and changes in procedure. The child should be able to leave the hospital as soon as possible after a definitive and circumscribed primary course of treatment. Since complication-free surgical interventions are now available, many more operative procedures for dealing with fractures during the years of growth have become routine in this field.