Fracture healing in weight-bearing and nonweight-bearing bones.

Animal models demonstrated the differences in the process of fracture healing in weight-bearing and nonweight-bearing bones. Canine rib fractures regained strength properties rapidly; in canine radial fractures the return to normal stiffness levels was primary. The structural differences in fracture healing are probably functional and due more to biologic reorganization than to any measurable change in the biochemical components of the callus.