Over the weekend I fractured my collarbone. The doctor said she would give me something called a clavical support until it healed. After the nurses spent about fifteen minutes looking for one the doctor came back in an told me that it turns out that the hospital no longer stocks clavical supports. She said it was like binding broken ribs, it does more harm then good.
I understand why binding ribs would be bad. You have hard enough time breathing with broken ribs the last thing you need is something makes it even harder. It could lead to pnumonia.
I looked up clavical supports online, and it basically looks like a bra without cups. It holds your shoulders in place so you can’t move them. Judging from the amount of pain I am in right now, it seems like that might help.
My question is how could a clavical support do more harm then good? I would have asked the doctor, but it was a Saturday urgent care clinic and she was kind of swamped.
I broke mine about 3 years ago and they gave me one of those bra things. They didn’t do anything else and it healed although it looks pretty much a flamingo leg. I’ve actually broke the same clavicle 4 times, starting about 25 years ago and they’ve given me the clavicle support every time. I asked them about straightening it out, but they said it’d be fine (it was at the medical clinic at a ski resort). It seems to work OK, but then I’m not an anorexic clavicle baring starlet.
Perhaps your injury is just a hairline fracture and the doctor figured you didn’t really need it. My strappy thing didn’t really give me much support but kind of kept my shoulders back. I hope everything goes well for you.
The doctor distinctly said that they don’t use them anymore. It must have been a pretty recent discovery, because she did have the nurses looking for a while. When you had one, did it help?
Wow. I’ve broken my left clavicle twice (both in bicycle crashes), and I have a prominent bump in the middle, where the bone didn’t line up straight before it healed. Yours must look like a corkscrew.
Shera I had the support both times and the best I could tell is that the support, coupled with an arm sling, immobilizes the bone as much as possible (which isn’t much, as well you know). Until the bone sets and starts to knit together, it just sort of flops around. The less movement, the better. The second time I broke mine, it didn’t really set until about 3 weeks, because I was fairly active and kept moving my arms. Actually, I went hiking 4 days after breaking it. Not on a nice trail, but on a rocky hillside. Of course, I slipped and fell, on my left side, and tried to use my arm to catch myself. OH THE PAIN. That one didn’t actually completely heal until 5 months later, when I fell on it again in yet another bike crash. It didn’t break, but the slight lingering pain from the original break went away after that.
I’m not sure how the support and sling could do more harm than good. Maybe not effective, but harmful? Best advice is to keep it as immoble as possible. Forget about t-shirts for a while, everything will be button up. Have fun trying to get a good nights sleep.
[slight hijack]
Man, is there any pain like the pain of a broken bone? Not that it’s an especially intense pain, just that it’s unique. When you get your second broken bone, you think to youself, “Oh yeah, that’s broken”.
I think the bra thing helps as it keeps your shoulders back and aligns the bone a bit. Yeah, it hurts, but not that bad. I rode about 3 miles on a dirt single track with it broken (I tried to ride down a set of stairs after about 20 beers and some mysterious substances after a Meat Puppets concert).
The strongest drug I was given was Vicodin. I broke it one time playing Ultimate Frisbee (I could never master laying it out). 5 weeks later, my Doc told me it was healed and I promptly broke it again diving for another frisbee. So, let it heal real good.
I broke mine in Judo. I got thrown really hard on mats that weren’t up to the task. They had no give. We were supposed to be pulling our throws and the other girl either didn’t understand or didn’t care. Unfortuntaly all I have are t-shirts. It’s not fun. I just suck it up and do it fast. Sleeping is a whole new experience. The only comfortable position is on my back, and I can’t sleep on my back.
This is the first bone I have ever broken. I have to say, I knew it was broken the instant it happened. I did put off going to the doctor for a day, because I was in denial.
I broke (shattered) my clavicle in a bike crash, but had surgical repair after about a week so nothing to report as far as those support thingies. I’ve also heard stories (OK, 1 story) about a clavicle fracture that didn’t heal properly, and then the broken ends started wasting away, leading to subsequent fracture. At what point does one start to worry about that, and is a follow-up exam either with an orthopedist or GP pretty standard?
The second (and last) time I broke mine was in a bike race in another town, so I had a nice visit with the ER staff there. When I returned home, I went to an orthopedist who looked at it and said “Yep, it’s broken. Keep using the brace and sling and come back in two weeks”. At the time, there were only 2 or 3 orthopedists in town. There was also a bunch of retirees who seem to slip and fall quite often. When I returned two weeks later, his office was packed with a hundred old people on crutches. The orthopedist literally saw me in the hallway, had a quick look and feel of the clavicle, and said “Yep, it’s healing. Keep using the brace and sling and come back in two weeks”. Like an idiot, I showed up two weeks later (at 2:45 pm for a 3:00 appointment). The waiting room was now packed with a thousand old people, but I saw a friend there. She was still waiting at 2:45 pm for her 11:00 am appointment! I just turned and walked out the door.
Next time it happens, I’ll go for the initial visit just to make sure it isn’t serious (assuming the bone isn’t sticking out of my chest). There is a risk of cutting a major artery that lies below the bone, so I wouldn’t blow off the inital visit. Once I was sure it was similar to my previous injuries, I’d skip the follow up visits. There are a million old people who need the orthopedist more than I do.
I’ve never heard that the braces are worse than using just a sling, and my personal experience speaks to just the opposite being true. I broke my collarbone clean in half in gym class. My arm was falling off my body, and the bone has almost broken the skin. The doctor that treated me was out of the figure-8 braces, so all I got was a sling. A month later, the bones still hadn’t knit back together completely, and were not properly aligned, so I had to have it re-broken and re-set, this time with a figure-8. The brace made all the difference in the world.
It’s been over 10 years now, and I still have a great deal of pain, and my mobility is limited in that arm. I have a winged scapula, and scapular bursitis. I’ve purchased a dorsal vest that provides a lot of support, and generally helps keep the pain down. I have seen a lot of research that shows clavicle fractures that are treated surgically tend to do a lot better in the long run, and those not treated at all tend to limit mobility. There is a doctor who has begun treating old collarbone injuries surgically that were not set or healed properly to begin with. I’m saving up money for a consult, one of these days.
Shoulder1 has a lot of resources online for information about various shoulder-related injuries, including clavicle fractures.
So did my doctor just make up the story about them being bad because they were out of them? That seems like a lot of trouble when they could have just said, " Come back in a couple days, when we have more."
Yep. Sorta like tearing a ligament. The second time you do it, you know it right away. Every time I’ve broken a knuckle, I could tell immediately. You’d think we’d learn…
Well, here we go, ER nurse with a broken clavicle checking in. Basically, lot’s of treatments that seemed like a good idea haven’t panned out in the long run. We rarely pump stomachs, I’ve never given ipecac or cracked a chest, nor have I used anti-shock trousers.
The idea with figure 8 splints was that pulling your shoulders back would bring the ends of the bones closer to alignment for better healing. Sounds good but studies have shown that if both ends of the bone are in the same room they heal just fine, go home and don’t wiggle it for a month. Now there are exceptions like the poster above that required surgery, but for most people a sling is fine.
My experience is a little different, I broke mine very close to the sternum which is rare. I felt the alignment move in and out of place a couple of times and said fuck this I’m buying a figure 8 splint. Cost me 20 bucks and markedly improved my comfort. My orthopedist said it’d won’t speed the healing, but if it helps with pain go for it. Not sure where they came up with more harm than good, I’ve never heard that.
Okay, that makes a little more sense. For what it’s worth, they didn’t even give me a sling. I went to the drug store and bought one myself. I am not sure where they got the “more harm then good,” either. Maybe she was just rushed and it felt like the right thing to say at the time.
I guess this is why orthopedists go to medical school - to know better what treatment is required for each injury. Although, if there’s a possibility of different diagnoses/treatments, then there is the possibility of a wrong decision, separating the experienced doctors from their less-well-prepared brethren.
The guy I saw is a well-regarded orthopedist (specializing in sports-related fractures) at a large research/teaching hospital. He said that in many cases or with a different surgeon I would have been sent home to heal, and that I would have had less mobility and more disfigurement than I do now (shattered clavicle) and the possibility of arthritis in my shoulder (glenoid fracture).
It does sound like clean breaks can heal by themselves with little intervention, but XJETGIRLX’s experience makes it seem like the best predictor of long-term success is the quality of the initial consult. Hope it works out well for all you post-fracture types.
Well, I want to thank XJETGIRLX for the links, I’m a little worried about my injury today, seems like things aren’t as stabilized as I thought, I’ve got some increased pain. Now I know what to suggest to my ortho next week. thanks
I’m an ER doc who sees lots of broken collarbones.
In short, a clavicle strap (figure eight) will provide some support to the clavicle. But most orthopods thing that a broad arm sling or shoulder immoblilizer does a superior job. I tend to use these, although our ER still stocks clavicle straps.
Clavicles may heal a little crooked. If the crack is in the middle third of the bone, like most, it probably doesn’t need surgery. If it is close to the shoulder, it might. It takes a hugh amount of force to disrupt the sternockavicular joint close to the breast bone, but this can be a very serious injury.
Interesting. I have broken one or the other of my collar bones three times. The first when I was born and the doctors told my mom to lay me on my back in the crib. About 25 years about I broke it skiing and had a figure 8 thingy. It was wierd skiing down the hill and feeling the bone pop and grind. Then about 12 years ago I was hit by a car ridding my motor cycle, again I had a figure 8 thingy. It did not hurt but it was uncomfortable and it was a huge pain because I needed help putting it on and off and I did not like to have my roommate help me bathe. I seem to remember that the figure 8 thing was nice to have during the day because when I had it off to bathe and such I had to be careful otherwise I would move my arm somehow and cause pain in my collar bone.
Well, I hope this thread hasn’t been dormant for too long to add to it.
I went to my ortho today for my follow up and asked him about it. He said they would sometimes see people who had a figure 8 placed in the ER after a week or 2 that had skin breakdown from the splint being placed tight and not being adjusted for activity. Now me, I adjusted mine for position changes and sleep so no worries. Plus my break was near the sternum which is pretty rare, if you have a distal break, and the splint is pressing down on it, you could get some significant skin complications. So my doc says, and it makes sense, but I’ve never seen/heard of it IRL.