How to Pronounce Blow-In Fracture

Say it like this: BLOH-IN FRAK-chur. The first part rhymes with "go," the second part sounds like "in" (as in "come in"), and the last part sounds like "fracture" (FRAK-chur). Put the stress on the first syllable: BLOH.

The term describes what happens during the injury: bone fragments are pushed or "blown" inward into the eye socket (orbit). It's the opposite of a blowout fracture, where fragments go outward instead of in.

The phrase has four syllables total: BLOH-IN FRAK-chur. You can break it into two words—"blow-in" (2 syllables) and "fracture" (2 syllables).

Both involve broken bones around the eye socket, but the direction is opposite. A blow-in fracture pushes bone pieces inward (into the orbit), while a blowout fracture pushes them outward (away from the orbit). You can remember it by thinking: "in" means toward the inside, and "out" means toward the outside.

The word "orbital" (OR-bit-al) refers to the eye socket—the bony cavity that holds your eyeball. So an orbital fracture is a break in one of the bones that form this socket.

Here's an example: "The radiologist identified a blow-in fracture after reviewing the CT scan of the eye socket." This sentence shows the term being used in a medical context without giving any medical advice.

Many people stress the wrong syllable and say "blow-IN fracture" instead of "BLOH-in fracture." Remember: the stress belongs on the first syllable (BLOH), not the second one.

There isn't a commonly used abbreviation for this term. Medical professionals usually say or write out the full phrase: "blow-in fracture."