Broken Leg

A broken leg is a bone fracture (broken bone) in your leg. Healthcare providers also call broken legs fractured legs.

There are three bones in your leg, including your:

• Femur (thigh bone).
• Tibia (shin bone).
• Fibula (calf bone).

Severe traumas (like a car accident or falling off a roof) can break all three of your leg bones at the same time. It’s also common to break your tibia and fibula during the same injury.

You might need surgery to repair a fractured leg, especially if you break your femur. Some people can recover without surgery and only need a splint or cast. You’ll need physical therapy to regain your leg’s strength and ability to move.

Types of broken legs

In addition to saying which of your leg bones is broken, a healthcare provider will assign the fracture a type or classification.

Providers classify some fractures by the break’s shape or pattern:

• Transverse fracture.
• Oblique fracture.
• Spiral fracture.
• Segmental fracture.
• Comminuted fracture.
• Buckle (impacted) fracture.

Some types of fractures are classified by how they happen:

• Stress fracture.
• Avulsion fracture.

For example, you might have a transverse femur fracture or a segmental tibia fracture. All of the different names and types are ways for your provider to quickly and specifically say which bone is broken, and what the injury did to it.

How common are broken legs?

The femur is the biggest and strongest bone in your body, and usually, only severe traumas can break it. Experts estimate that fewer than 30 in every 1,000 people worldwide break a femur each year.

Tibia and fibula fractures are some of the most common long bones people break. It’s very rare for someone to break their fibula on its own. Fibula fractures almost always happen at the same time as tibia fractures.