Broken Collar Bone – How Long to Fix?

Broke my right Collar Bone a week ago, just been seen by the fracture clinic who adviced to keep in a sling, rest an let the body heal!

Just curious, to know average recovery time and whether its worth going private and pursuing having it operated on…?

Any in-sight would be welcome!

In my case – 18 months, after being mis-diagnosed as healing when it clearly wasn’t (one of the fractured ends rubbing against my jugular 😯 ), and wait for surgery, then the screws from the plate pulling out of the bone, requiring a 2nd (emergency) round of surgery to remove it!

There are a lot of threads on this subject and a lot of different experiences.

It doesn’t matter if it’s plated or not, the healing time should be the same (unless you suffer the problem that NikNak describes) and is usually around 8 weeks.

I imagine healing naturally would be a potentially painful process if your arm gets knocked about in the process. I’m glad I had mine pinned.

NikNak – that sounds terrible…. assume yours was a worst case scenario??

GeeTee – did you require a second op to have the plate out?

If it needs operated on you would have been offered that treatment. Surgical option is rarely good news and should be avoided if you can.

The doc. gave me the option, i went with self heal as seemed the easiest and probably the less troublesome, but am now unsure….

Thought the ST massive must have some experience of this injury and pass on a few pearls!

Arcticdan – Member

NikNak – that sounds terrible…. assume yours was a worst case scenario??

It was, thankfully.
They told me that (usually) it’s pretty well knitted together in about 6 weeks, but takes roughly 3 months for the new bone to harden and be up to full strength.

The important thing between now and then is to start on a course of (very) gentle Physiotherapy, so that the shoulder joint doesn’t sieze up, and you don’t lose too much muscle through inactivity.

I landed on my shoulder back in may, i didnt break anything but it still hurts now! I dont recover as well at the spritely age of 35 as i did at 18 but even so, 7 months and still feeling it is a pain (literally).
The bone should heal, like said in about 8 weeks so try not to rush it as that might set you back.

I’ve just been discharged from snapping the tip off my clavical. No surgery – tendons just pulled it all straight and with rest and imobilization it all healed fine. Glad really i didn’t need surgery. Took about 12 weeks to be fully repaired. My recovery was complicated by the broken thumb/tendon damage on the other arm 🙄

I’d recommend sitting back and letting nature take it’s course.

And why was i that patient – well my brother broke his collar bone in his teens. Couldn’t wait lomg enough to let it heal (impatient fool that he was) – used it too soon and ended up with a horrible lump sticking out the middle of his collar bone. This eventually was operated on to make it more sightly/comfortable but due to how much bone was removed he had to have it plated to strengthen it.

Then when he broke it again a few years later it snapped at the end of the plate where it was naturally weaker than the metal 🙁

Borken my right one – was ok after 4 weeks, left one was 10 weeks before I was allowed to go back on the bike (they were broken on different occasions). For the left one the (German) doc said if it was on the continent they’d probably pin it but the standard for UK is to leave it alone to heal naturally.

8 weeks shoud be enough. Out on your bike on tarmac only after 6. If it’s been a week, you’re too late now to manipulate it. After 3 weeks see a physio. Not any physio, find one that’s attached to a pro-football club or physio to national/olympic squad as they will push you much harder and understand that you don’t just want to get better you want to be better than you ever were, and fast!

C

Go and see these guys, best £200 i ever spent.
http://www.physionclinic.net
I went after I broke mine in to 4 pieces in july. I was offered surgery as an option but went with the natural approach. I saw those guys 7 days after I did it, I was back on the road bike less than 3 weeks after I did it, mountain bike around 4 and pain free back to normal at 6 weeks.
Have a look at the website they do a lot of collar bones and deal with lots of motorbike riders etc, some case histories on there too. I know 2 other people who’ve used them for collar bones as well and all have had very good results. One was skiing for a week 4 weeks after the break. The other did the session 2 days after the break, went to fracture clinic a week after and they were amazed at the mobility etc he had.
I’ve probably conveyed enough that I quite rate it even thought it was a 4 hour each way trip for me to have it done. If you’ve got any questions email me (in profile).

The important thing between now and then is to start on a course of (very) gentle Physiotherapy, so that the shoulder joint doesn’t sieze up, and you don’t lose too much muscle through inactivity.

When I did mine the doctor at the fracture clinic told me I didn’t need to see a physio about it. Grr. 🙁

steveh – can u let me know the name of the company, your link isn’t working!

Did mine snowboarding while still young enough to heal.

It was 10 weeks before I was anything like normal. I wasn’t given the option of a plate even though it was in two distinct bits and I now look a bit lop sided.

Alot seems to depend on the kind of sling offered lots of people seem to have had good experiences with figure of 8 slings as they hold your shoulder back? Cant say as I had a bog standard one.

balls sorry.
http://www.physioclinic.net

Checked it that one works fine. They’ll also give you a figure 8 support which is much better, gives you 2 hands all the time and is more comfy.

Think the type of sling used might depend on where you’ve snapped the bone. I had a poly sling which supported the whole arm as i’d snapped the bone near the end and the arm needing holding up to keep everything in place.

When I did mine I just got fed up after a couple of weeks and started using it a little bit… it got better then!
My dr told me to rest it for 2-4 weeks and then just do what I felt I could, and stop when it hurt. I did just that and was back on the bike after 5 weeks (on the road with suspension) and doing proper stuff after about 10 weeks.
Good luck!

mine took 5 weeks before gentle rides down`t cut 😀

Thanks all, guess i just have to be patient….

At least its cold and wet at the moment so not missing much!

Took me five months until I could ride a bike again. I couldn’t put any pressure on my shoulder and it was just too painful to ride a bike. My collar bone wasn’t pinned, just wore a sling and rested it.

Good luck and hope you heal soon!

Surgical option is rarely good news and should be avoided if you can.

Not my experience and not the opinion of the shoulder specialist that I consulted with. The argument for plating is that it avoids developing a significant overlap in the bone, which can pull your shoulder out of line and potentially lead to back problems in later life.

I went after I broke mine in to 4 pieces in july. I was offered surgery as an option but went with the natural approach. I saw those guys 7 days after I did it, I was back on the road bike less than 3 weeks after I did it

That’s as may be but no way was the bone healed in 4 weeks. Like any healing process you can ignore the advice and chance it but after four weeks, you’re bones have not knitted properly; they are still fragile so it’s hardly brilliant care they’re offering, just plain irresponsible. Some basic research shows that it takes around 3 months for the join to be 80% as strong as normal and up to 18 months for it to be 100% healed.

apparently it makes a lot of difference if you have a simple fracture (6 weeks) or multiple fracture + soft tissue damage (12 weeks). I just had my 12 week x-ray and one of my breaks has not healed, and probably won’t now, which is also common with multiple fractures. My guy also told me that having a plate does not affect whether the bone heals or not, and it’s actually worse to have a plate over a bone that doesn’t heal.

Saying that, I just had my first ride today and it was fine. The issue now is the amount of muscle that wasted away while I have been sat on my arse over Xmas replacing it with an extra stone of lard.

Did mine in July right up by the shoulder joint. As others have said it either needs surgery or it doesn’t at first, but if it doesn’t knit you might need surgery to help that, which is a mare. So keep it still! I think it was 7 weeks before I was well knitted.

6 months down the line it still hurts like hell in the cold and I still have a partially frozen shoulder. I think my physio was too gentle earlier on and it seized up – the doctor I saw at my last x ray appointment told the physio to leave it 4 weeks before starting work on it which I think was a mistake and led to the frozen shoulder.

Main thing is to let it heal though, but get on the physio as soon as the knitting is strong enough. A good first exercise is just take your arm out the sling, bend over and let it swing gently, to get the shoulder moving a little.

Did my right collar into three pieces.
UK fracture clinic normal response- no plate.
Have big bone overlap,looks odd but doesn’t bother my movement.
Off my bike for 12 weeks due to advice that small fall may seperate bone again. Biggest problem was the change from pre accident mindset that falls were part of riding to post accident were I freak a bit that I might hurt myself!!!!
Three points of advice
1, Do not take the word of your NHS doctor as gospel.Ask questions
2, Buy a decent sling, usually about £15.One with a waist belt aswell as an arm sling. Strap it up tight and you can get a nights sleep without squealing when you roll over in bed.
3,Just cruise the net for your next bike/bike bits makes the time go. by.

Yeah good advice on the sling, the collar & cuff from the hospital is terrible. My gf knitted me a good one which was loads more comfy – I know someone posh who got a nice leather one from bupa.

16 weeks before I got back on the bike last week.
It’s still not right though, I’m getting another xray next week.
I’d have preferred the op looking back on what has been a pretty tough recovery.

Did mine in July last year, with added bonus of ACL separation. Back on the bike within 4 weeks (actually 2 weeks, but that wasn’t the best idea I ever had). I read you need 6000 calories a day to mend broken bones, so I ate lots, took calcium tablets and dose up on strong painkillers.
Realistically 6 weeks before you feel 100% and 12 weeks before you actually are 100%. All depends on how badly you’ve broken it though.

Just a little after thought for you, we’ve just been through some of the crappest weather in a long time, orthopedic clinics are toppers with wrists/ankles/hips, anything that can be remotely classes as elective is not even getting considered

Plenty of crap in this thread, whatever you don’t eat 6000 calories a day for 12 weeks unless you want to use the fat as some kind of body splint

i snapped mine in 2 when i was 21 playing fives, clean break, just left to heal on its own, 2 and a half months and it felt kinda alright, 3 months before i went back to work, it took 6 months to feel totally strong again due to the 2-3 months on muscule wastage from doing nothing, but even then it was a year before i had any kinda confindence to fall on that side doing anything.

That’s as may be but no way was the bone healed in 4 weeks. Like any healing process you can ignore the advice and chance it but after four weeks, you’re bones have not knitted properly; they are still fragile so it’s hardly brilliant care they’re offering, just plain irresponsible. Some basic research shows that it takes around 3 months for the join to be 80% as strong as normal and up to 18 months for it to be 100% healed.

The work the clinic do significantly increases the rate at which bone building cells are generated and also the ratio of bone building cells compared to those which destroy bone. The healing is much quicker than standard and the calcification of the bone and hence it’s strength was much more advanced than expected for the time according to the consultant I spoke to at the fracture clinic when I was discharged. He commented on how well it had healed and how fast.
While I’m not saying it was 100% it was certainly solid when i got back on the xc bike and there is evidence to suggest that use of the damaged bone does have a positive impact on healing. They have guys doing far more with bones after far shorter periods. They say that you should use the pain as a guide for what to do.

Depends how bad the break is. Mine was 6 weeks healing time, which was fortunate as 6 weeks to the day of breaking it I was racing a downhill event in the Alps!