Which sequence best describes bone healing?

Prepare for the Tissue Injury, Healing, and Pain Test. Utilize flashcards and multiple-choice questions with hints and explanations. Ensure you're ready for the exam!

The sequence of bone healing starts with an inflammatory response right after a fracture. This early phase brings in immune cells and a hematoma that set the stage for healing. After this brief inflammatory stage, repair begins and a soft callus forms, produced by chondroblasts, osteoblasts, and fibroblasts, to bridge the fracture. Over time, this soft callus is replaced by a hard callus through ossification, providing stability. Finally, remodeling occurs, where the newly formed woven bone is replaced by lamellar bone and the bone regains its normal shape and strength. This full progression—inflammatory response, repair, then remodeling—best describes how bone heals.

Hematoma formation is part of the inflammatory phase but doesn’t capture the subsequent repair and remodeling. Forming a soft callus is a key repair step, but it doesn’t include the initial inflammatory stage or the later remodeling. Ossification of the callus is a later repair/remodeling event and doesn’t describe the whole sequence from injury through restoration.