The difference between a fracture and a broken bone is that a fracture encompasses a broken bone. A fracture is medically defined as a break in the continuity of a bone trabecula. Common fractures include comminuted fractures, which are more serious fractures; transverse fractures, where although the bone is broken, it is not significantly altered in position; and green branch fractures, such as in children with soft bones, where a fracture occurs and no obvious fracture line may be found on the imaging data. In addition, there are displaced fractures, oblique fractures, spiral fractures, and compression fractures, which are all common fractures. A bone break is a complete disruption of the bone cortex to the trabeculae in a bone. In fact, in medical terms, the term bone break is inaccurate. A fracture includes both a bone fracture and a bone break, and a bone break only indicates a change in the shape of the bone and is not a separate diagnosis, which is the main difference. A fracture includes a bone break, however, a bone break does not include a fracture.