The high prevalence of fractures and the essential role that imaging examinations play in this scenario require the radiologist to be familiar with their main patterns, especially those of fractures for which the management is essentially surgical. This pictorial essay presents a series of illustrative cases and a brief review of the literature, the aim being to demonstrate some of the main fractures of the appendicular skeleton that require surgical management, grouped, didactically, by the joint affected. Radiographic and computed tomography studies of illustrative cases were selected from the imaging archives of our facility.

Keywords: Fractures, bone/diagnostic imaging; Fractures, bone/surgery; Skeleton/injuries; Bone and bones/injuries; Joints/injuries.