[Traumatic bone deformation in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood--pathomechanics and review of the literature].

Stresses applied to bones can cause plastic deformation, or bowing fractures; the bone is deformed by axial compression in children and by slow bending stress, i.e. three-point bending from the side, in young adults. Biomechanical properties of the bone and its plastic and elastic behaviour are discussed. We present a 14-year-old boy with a bowing fracture of the fifth metacarpal bone.