Orthopaedic Surgery/Bone

Bone

Bone is the tissue that makes us vertebrates. The stiffness and rigidity of our body is due to the presence of bone. Bone provides our body structural form and gives us the shape that we so often refer to as the human body. It is the internal scaffolding on which the rest of the body is built. Due to its ability to absorb force, bony structures also protect vital organs in the body. Bone is the unit that makes up the skeleton in vertebrates. Several bones join together in specialised areas, termed joints, to form the skeleton. Alongwith the muscle tissue, tendons and ligaments bones are able to move on one another at the joints and produce movement of various parts of the body. This also permits the movement of the human body from one location to another - locomotion.

Bones are a storehouse for two important minerals in our body - calcium and phosphorus. Matabolic activity in the bones is intimately related to the balance of these two minerals. Any alteration in the levels of calcium or phosphorus, as they do occur in many disease processes, is reflected on the human skeleton. Bones are also the site for production of red blood cells, haematopoiesis.

In this chapter we try to understand important biological processes involving the bones. Understanding the basic anatomical tissue will provide us a sound ground for comprehending the pathological states they may be involved in.