So I went and broke my collar bone last weekend. Now Im looking for some input. It seems like plating it may be the best option but the ortho has some concerns about if I crash again or damage the plate it would bring a hole new mess to the game. So what have you done and why?
Plate it. Mine looked similar to that after my first fracture and i plated it. After that, i broke it again (on the outside/end of the plate) and they had to plate it again. That SOB will never heal right like that. This is what mine looked like before the first plate.
I broke mine last month and I decided not to do anything which my Ortho agreed a plate/surgery wasn't necessary. He said I'll get all my rotation/function back and so far it's healing properly. I figure I'm going to break it again so why plate it? It may cause more damage if you were to plate it and crash again breaking the same bone is my understanding.
yeah that was kind of the thinking bouncing around my orthos office. or if somehow you break it again then you have screws that could potential interact with some things
can they plate until healed then remove? not sure it is an option. my buddy broke his last year and let it heal naturally has a big bump now. I tore all the tigaments that hold mine in place at the shoulder 5+ years ago had to go in 18 months later and have surgery to cut 3/4" off the end and attach a ligament from my scapula to hold it down. that sucked but it has been great since. they used to use figure 8 to hold you shoulders back to try ot get it aligned properly, not a common practice any more. if left naturally you will have a bump at the heal site. not sure what your thoughts are, can they align or do anything like that for you?
Your doctor knows a lot more than everyone here combined about this issue. Do what he suggestions. Additionally, common sense would dictate that if you don't need metal, don't get metal.
Plate it. I had my collarbone plated a year ago. Not much choice about it as the pieces of bone overlapped and would not have healed properly, but would have healed. Doc said I would have less strength and mobility than if plated. So I had it plated. Now I have about as much strength and mobility as I had before the break. He said I could have it taken out after a year or leave it in forever. We discussed these choices. On the one hand, if I leave the plate in any future break will most likely be at the plate. Not a good thing imho. If he takes it out he said the healed bone would likely be the strongest part of the collarbone and any future break would probably be somewhere else. He said the bone would grow into the holes now occupied by the eight screws.
I didn't plate mine - no surgery at all. It took a LONG time to fully heal. They will all say 6 weeks, but that's a pipe dream. I'd say it was 6 months before I was 100% and back to weight training. Surgery will shorten that time dramatically. Since the break will be fixed in place, your mobility will immediately be much better. Figure a true 6 weeks for the bone to fuse after surgery. As for re-breaking it - that I have no experience with. I know several racers that have had theirs plated, and have had several crashes since with no issues. It's anecdotal evidence at best, I know, so take it for what it's worth. Your doctor (in theory) knows best, but a second opinion may not be a bad idea either.
I didn't plate mine - and mine looked a lot worse than yours on film. The reasons I didn't: 1. My ortho recommended against it - he doesn't like to operate unless absolutely necessary 2. Plating requires scraping soft tissue from the bone surface for the plate to contact. That soft tissue is the blood supply that helps healing. End result would be a weaker union if plated, according to my ortho. 3. Plating mine would have required a bone graft - as I had big gaps to fill - they were going to dig bone out of my hip. While the collarbone would heal in weeks if plated - the hip was projected to take a long time. 4. See #1 I ran into complications - and ended up needing a bone growth stimulator to assist healing, but never needed to go to (the last resort) plating it... I will always choose to avoid surgery over getting it if possible. This is only a hobby... a little extra healing time isn't worth the risks of plating IMO.
Mine was pinned ,there were way too many piecese to plate.So, a pin, some fake bone graft and my shoulder works , granted its a good bit shorter than my other one , lol ! Id have a good talk with your ortho and see what they say . Just rember, it could be alot worse , you could be having the will I walk again talk ! Heal up , drink your milk !
I've broken my right clavicle twice and my left once. Each time, the doc did what most do and put me in a sling and let it heal on its own. Six to eight weeks to fully heal. My 2nd right clavicle fracture was pretty bad as it snapped in three locations. Thing has never healed correctly and gives me trouble daily. The school of thought is to let them heal naturally. Problem is, they never heal as they were before. Normally it isn't a problem for most, except that it looks a bit funky. My toddler daughter snapped hers last year and it healed perfectly end to end. But with adults, that's not the case. Each side of the broken bone pushes towards each other and overlap. Eventually attaching themselves side by side rather than end to end - therefore shortening the bone. Unless it's a compound fracture where the bone has broken the skin, many doctors won't plate. The reason being that there is minimal blood flow to that area and infections are fairly common. I'm sure there will be plenty of folks posting up about such complications after having been plated. Having said that, I wish I'd had mine plated at the time. Faster recovery and a more complete healing when things go right. Unfortunately, I didn't know enough at the time to make the right call.
Didn't plate mine last summer. Took 3 or 4 months for it to feel "connected" again. Your doc should be able to see after 4 to 6 weeks if it's healing correctly or not. I choose not to be cut on unless it will leave a really cool scar or is absolutely necessary In your case I'd leave it alone unless it doesn't heal correctly.
I have broke my right one 4 times. Never plated it. The second time it healed it wasn't right, but was not a big deal. The third time I broke it it healed better. 4th time no big deal again. The shortest time for me getting back to racing was 4 weeks, and yes it sucked putting leathers on and off. It was totally healed each time I broke it.
That thing is pretty displaced. Go with what the Doc recommends. Oddly enough they usually know best. When I broke mine a couple years back the Dr. recommended no surgery. My break snapped a 1.5" long half moon shaped shard out of the center and spun it sideways. It looked like a pencil was sticking up about 3/4" out of the top of my collar bone and trying to poke through the skin. It was freaky to say the least. I insisted that I needed surgery because not only was that pointing up but the bottom part of it was pointing down into my body. I even got a second opinion and that Doc said dont do surgery it will heal fine. I was lucky the two ends were touching and lined up perfectly except for the pointy shard. They said the shard would go down and get absorbed by the body and be fine. They both said surgery would be a quicker initial heal time, but then I would have to have surgery again to remove it because of my lifestyle thus having to separate healing times. I wore the Bro as my brother calls it which is the figure 8 all the time like they suggested and did as little movement as possible. Took about 10 weeks, but it healed up perfect. Bone thing disappear after about 3 months and now you couldn't tell I broke it unless I told you.
Broke both my collar bones, had both plated. The first time I tried letting it heal naturally, but after 5 weeks it wasn't healing right and I was having a lot of problems with pain, despite being in a figure 8 brace. So it got plated and 3 days later... wow did I feel great. I actually was able to get on a street bike again about 3 week later 1 1/2 years later I broke by left into 5 pieces. Doc didn't want to take a chance this time especially with 5 pieces and plated it as well. With-in a week I was feel much better... This last Winter, I went in and had both plates removed as the Doc really didn't want me leaving them in if I was still racing for fear of a axial (think that's the right term) or end break... even though I had went down a couple time with them in already. The last surgery I was sore for a couple days, but no real recovery... All-in-all. I'm a fan for plating...
I would vote plate then remove or see I'd it can be pinned I opted for no surgery on my hand as reccomended by the doc and almost a year later it hadn't healed yet I went to the ortho and had him pin it but the damage was already done. Because it wasn't healing my tendons over my fingers had stretched to try to make up for the broken bone and I don't have very good movement in my right hand anymore. Surgery fixes things faster than they heal on their own, and most of the time it's a better more solid fix than if you let it heal by itself
Mine looked worse then yours and it wasnt plated. That part of the body doesnt get a lot of bloodflow and blood is whats needed to heal the bone. If they operate and cut into the area there will be even less blood flow. I wore a clavicle brace for 4 weeks. It pulled the bones back together so they could heal.
Have broken one 4 times and the other 2 times. No plates. If I had to do it again I'd have gone with plates, but that wasn't as popular an option back in the day. With no plate, it just took too long to get them right where they didn't affect my riding. And they're all lumpy, too, and on the left side there's a sort of a hinge effect going on.
Thought I had a scan of mine but about the same in 4 pieces and no plate, very happy with the decision. Just have a big ass bump now and 1/2" narrower if you look close. Remember it hurting alot more than I expected, 3 days in a chair taking pills, 2 weeks using a bit, 4 weeks raced painfully. Biggest problem was sleeping, caused problems for 4 months or so. No problems at all now.
