Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01041:reg:7
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01041
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 7
Character Range: 1574–3594

7               Kind of injury, disease or death to which this Statement of Principles relates
(1)          This Statement of Principles is about fracture and death from fracture.
Meaning of fracture
(2)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, fracture:
(a)          means an acquired break of bone as a result of an applied force that ordinarily would cause bone breakage in a healthy bone; and
(b)          includes:
(i)            acute vascular shock, acute compartment syndrome, or fat embolism resulting from the fractured bone;
(ii)         avulsion, crush, comminuted, burst, or blowout fracture;
(iii)       closed or compound/open fracture;
(iv)        fracture of bone contiguous with an orthopaedic implant; and
(v)          growth plate fractures;
(vi)        periosteal, muscular, fascial, skin, nerve or vascular damage directly caused by the displaced fractured bone;
(vii)      stress fracture of the fatigue type;
(viii)   torsion or spiral fracture; and
(ix)         wound infection as a result of penetration of the skin by bony fracture fragments (compound fracture);
(c)          excludes:
(i)            pathological fracture;
(ii)         bone stress injury/bone marrow oedema not being a stress fracture;
(iii)       stress fracture of the insufficiency type;
(iv)        osteonecrosis;
(v)          periostitis;
(vi)        fracture of teeth;
(vii)     fracture of cartilage;
(viii)   fracture of an orthopaedic implant including a screw, nail, fixation plate or prosthesis; and
(ix)        spondylolysis.
Note: Clinical worsening could include fracture non-union but not an additional fracture. An additional fracture would require further invocation of the fracture statement of principles.
Death from fracture
(3)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, fracture, in relation to a person, includes death from a terminal event or condition that was contributed to by the person's fracture.
Note: terminal event is defined in the Schedule 1 – Dictionary.