broken clavicle...surgery or not? - Page 37

Mine was pretty similar, except my clavicle was in more pieces. As a result of other injuries sustained at the time, I could not have surgery. I have a noticeable bump, today, but the final alignment is frankly amazing compared to the alignment immediately post injury. That's just my story, though. What you need to do is see an orthopod.

I know exactly how it can be to have such an injury and be short of insurance and cash (I'm not sure why anyone expects health care reform that excludes a govt option in favor of letting the private insurers do the business to work. It's not like the private insurers have done anything in the last 50 years. Screw them.). What was the cause of the accident? If a car caused the accident, and a police report was generated, you'll eventually get money in settlement to pay back medical debt. If this happened in a sanctioned racing event, you should check with your licensing organization to see what insurance they have for racers (I've used such insurance before.). If it was just you making a riding error.....well, the most important thing is that your shoulder is treated correctly. The money issue is one that should be discussed with your doctor.

Good luck.

__________________
Sex is horrid
Pain is Fun
I cut my fingers off
One by one

I hate to be a bearer of bad news, but from my experience with this fracture I would say that you definitely require surgery to properly align the bone. If your fracture looks identical to the x-ray you linked then you have lots of displacement and the chance of a non-union (bone ends not properly aligning) is very high.
Don't sweat too much and just make the right decision. The pain-free use of your arm and shoulder is more important than staying out of debt. Just my .02 though. Best of luck, bud!

Thanks! i went to the orthro yesterday and he said that there's a 20% chance i should get surgery, but he wants to wait and see how the bone grows back with a figure 8 brace on. he said it should push the bones closer together and hopes a union will occur. This this is insanely uncomfortable but if it'll do the trick I'll gladly wear it for a month.

Good stuff. The fracture must have approximated well after the brace was put on.

__________________
Sex is horrid
Pain is Fun
I cut my fingers off
One by one

I feel like I can't really move my arm that much. How long before most people were able to move their arms again? Also, is there any way to tell whether the bones are healing nicely without having to do an xray every week? I am scheduling an appt with the orhtro again for the end of this week or perhaps early next week. Will this be enough time to show any progress of the bones healing or not healing? I hope that the brace has pushed my bones closer together for a union to occur. I do apologize for all the questions. Thank you in advance.

So it's been about 3 months since I broke my clavicle and I'm still having quite a bit of pain and discomfort. I posted an x Ray a few pages back. Do you think I need surgery? I think that by now I should be able to do everyday things without pain, but even wearing a seatbelt is pretty painful.

I broke my left clavicle on September 5th, 2009 in a road bike crash. It was a relatively severe brake, in three pieces and, like CraigB’s posting, shaped like a “Z”. I want to thank all the contributors to this forum for posting their experiences which all helped me make my decision regarding surgery (B1, thanks for the summary). I want to share with all of you an article my doctor provided me from the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (jbjs.org), written by L.A. Kashif Kahn and three other docs. The study is titled Current Concepts Review Fractures of the Clavicle, published in 2009, and provides recent information on many types of broken collarbones and provides some guidance on odds for a successful recovery depending on the type of collarbone brake. It also discusses the risks and positive/negative results from surgery.

Upon looking at the X-ray posted by Kosugesan, an Edinburgh table (from the JBJS article) classification would be “displaced”. If you have time, take a look at the article and then you can have a good discussion with your doctor.

My brake was more severe and I’m much older than Kosugesan at 49- age is a big factor in bone healing. I love to ski fast, and with the ski season approaching, I chose to do the surgery and was operated on September 14th. I now have a metal plate and 7 screws in my collarbone. My doctor was very experienced with this procedure (he teaches Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Vermont) and has authored many studies in his field. One of the findings during my surgery were numerous bone fragments floating around- I believe 5 to 10 small bone fragments were removed- this was not evident from the x-rays.

Approximately 12 days later, I’m healing quickly. I’m back on a stationary bike and in the gym lifting weights where possible. Most importantly, I’m back to work. I have been very impressed by the speed with which I’m able to get back to life, so to speak. I no longer need the sling and can lift my left arm all the way over my head and fully extend it out to the side and up without assistance (but I feel it, lots of physical therapy work yet to do here).

The downsides were clearly explained by my doctor- I have a small area below the incision where the nerves are dead (this may get better, but no guarantees); there will be a 4 or 5 inch scar across the top my left pectoral, and there is a 4 or 5 inch narrow & thin plate under my skin. I’ll update my post in about a month when they take the tape off and I’ll have a better idea of what this will all look like. Innovative operating techniques are enabling inside-out sewing (can’t see any stitches), super glue, and taping, which work together to reduce the visibility & size of the scar. At this point, I can’t see the metal plate under my skin- other than the incision, it all looks normal.

I hope this helps. Good luck to all of you.