Casts are supportive devices used to help keep an injured bone in place while it heals. Splints, sometimes called half casts, are a less supportive, less restrictive version of a cast. Casts and ...

Metal splints for broken leg bones, originally invented by a veterinary for use on dogs, have proved so effective in treating human fractures that the U.S. Navy is now buying 1,000 of them a month.