Humerus fracture Humerus fracture A humerus fracture is a break of the humerus bone in the upper arm. Symptoms are pain, swelling, and discoloration of the skin at the site of the fracture. Bruising appears a few days after the fracture. The neurovascular bundle of the arm may be affected in severe cases, which will cause loss of nerve function and diminished blood supply beneath the fracture. Proximal and distal fractures will often cause a loss of shoulder or elbow function. Displaced shaft and distal fractures may cause deformity, and such shaft fractures will often shorten the length of the upper arm.
Ossification of humerus of the trochlea appears about the age of twelve. Ossification begins in the medial epicondyle about the fifth year, and in the lateral about the thirteenth or fourteenth year. About the sixteenth or seventeenth year, the lateral epicondyle and both portions of the articulating surface, having already joined, unite with the body, and at the eighteenth year the medial epicondyle becomes joined to it. Ossification of humerus The humerus is ossified from "eight" centers, one for each of the following parts: the body, the head, the greater tubercle, the lesser tubercle, the capitulum, the trochlea, and one for each epicondyle.