The Science of Fracture Healing

Fracture healing is a unique repair process in which the events of endochondral and intramembranous bone formation follow a specific time sequence. There are many ways in which these events can be disrupted, leading to unsuccessful fracture healing. This article summarizes the series of cellular and molecular events that take place in the process of endochondral fracture healing, based on observations obtained from an animal model of a femoral fracture.