Broken Arm - Upper near Rotator

[Rich Hill]

Just after a bit of timeline really. Good and dear friend of mine broke his arm in a nasty MTB accident circa 3 weeks ago.

Its a clean break and has been immobilised. This X ray image here shows where he broke it -:



Where it says "Head of Humerus" his break is about two inches below.

How long do you think it will take in terms of weeks/month to get strength and proper use back of the arm? I am thinking 6 months MINIMUM.... he's thinking a heck of a lot faster than that....

VR riposte's fully expect and fully recommended...

Rich
_________________
Imagination is the war against reality....

[legro]

depends on the break and how old he is

Doctor should tell him anyway
_________________
www.mastercoach.co.uk
NLP Practitioner


Fear leads to anger....Anger leads to Stress......Stress leads to Doobies...and Doobies leads to Twinkies

The spirit of Brian must live on

[kingkongsfinger]

clavicle is too high.
_________________
"I could have done this job myself in five minutes, but as things turned out I had to spend two days trying to find out why it had taken someone else three weeks to do it wrong."

[Dogma Dave]

What Legro said, but could be anything from as little as six weeks upwards.

[Rich Hill]

[irishdave]

yeah thats sound like the best plan of action.... put pressure on a doctor to remove pins and plates !!! fracture site must be allowed to heal sufficiently and new stonger callous needs to be given time to bed itself.

first step is to accept he s fractured his humerus and its going to change his plans for the next few months.... then it all starts from there. the more he does early on that he should nt be doing hes only asking for trouble !!

as you said yourself 6 months overall time is a good starting point... earlier than that for full recovery is a bonus. it all depends on him not having any other complications, shoulder is a complex joint!!!

rest, do what, consultant/ surgeon then physio says when joint is ready to be mobilised, passively, then actively, then full rom, then strengthening.
_________________
'Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me.'
Tim Krabbe.

[eastway82]

I've known a good few guys who've had this injury from motorcycle crashes - it was the one that effectively finished Fogarty's career. Last thing your mate should be doing is 'putting pressure on the doctors to take the rods out' It's only the rods holding it together, and because it's VERY hard to immobilise the humerus properly, take the pins out too early and it will flex at the break point, so it will take a LOT longer to heal. Longer it takes, the worse the outcome - to the point of refusing to heal properly at all, and requiring bone grafts. Good mate of mine is covered in unnecessary scars from trying to come back too early from a broken humerus and ending up with two sets of bone grafts nearly a year down the line.
There are some breaks where you can rush the recovery time if you're fit and active, in comparison to a 'normal' sedentary person. This is not one of them in my opinion and experience.

[Tucker]

Breaking the humerus is not a laughing matter.

[Davey C]

_________________
Have you got any Triple Sod? Yellow Bentines? What about some Clarky Cat?

[Rich Hill]

[Richard Norris]

I agree with Eastway82, resting and healing sufficiently in the first instance will be faster in the long run....

[Rich Hill]

Quick update he's been told to wait another two weeks before they take out the pins! Seems morelikeit to me and I reckon they should add a bit to make sure it REALLY is set.
_________________
Imagination is the war against reality....

[deejay]

Am currently recovering from a broken leg myself, so have done a bit of research on this... detail below, but basically 6-12 weeks for the bone to be back to 80% of full strength.

Healing: How do fractures heal?
The process that occurs after injury that restores continuity and function of the tissues. There is a gradual replacement of the injured and necrotic tissue by living tissue which then differentiates into bone, muscle, tendon etc. The process will be described in detail elsewhere. Basically there are 4 stages
Inflammation: The damage to the bone and muscle, as well as the bleeding sets off an inflammatory reaction. The bleeding from the injury stops when the blood coagulates forming a blood clot. The early clot stimulates the growth of small *CENSORED* blood vessels from the surrounding normal tissue into the damaged area. As the blood supply increases the area swells and hurts. The vessels bring with them cells which lay down collagen fibres. (0-7 days)
Soft Callus: The volume which was originally blood clot and dead tissue is replaced by scar tissue, collagen fibres laid down in a random fashion with a rich blood supply and nerve supply. Cartilage tissue may develop in soft callus. The rubbery tissue is strong enough to keep the bone fragments together as long as it isn't stressed too much. (7 days to 6 weeks)
Hard Callus: Some of the cells in the soft callus differentiate into bone forming cells which produce bone mineral. This is laid down in the scar tissue to stiffen it. The result is "woven bone" bridging across from one fragment to another. It is 80% as strong as normal bone. (6 to 12 weeks)
Consolidation: The woven bone is gradually remodelled into compact bone around the circumference of the bone and a medullary cavity is reformed. As a result the bone recovers almost all of its pre-injury strength. Remodelling is stimulated by stressing the bone moderately. (3 months to 18 months)