shattered clavicle question

[zeroice]

Hello guys!

Monday the 3/10 I shattered my right clavical mid point and the doctor put in (on 3/14) a plate and 6 screws to put it back together.Tthere were a few large fragments present but the doc sutured those up. Doc said the plate can stay in for life unless the screws start to back out...

Anyways, recovery is going ok. I'm already back to work and driving too. Should be riding a street bike this weekend. Hope to be racing again in a few weeks.

My question is:
In terms of continuing with my racing career and of course potentially crashing again, is it unfavorable to crash with a plate present vs no plate present? For example, lets say I crash in the exact same manner (rare as it may be), would I do more or less damage to my clavicle with the plate present?
I mean, should I leave this plate in for life if I continue with an agressive racing career? Or should I have it removed during the off season?

I have a really good orthopedic surgeon, who is also an ironman finisher so he is an awesome athlete, but he is not familiar with repeating motorcycle sporting injuries so he cant answer these questions.

Would appreciate any and all advice from all of those with experience! 

Thanks,
Krishna

[spyderchick]

Lots of folks race post clavicle fracture. Rhiannon has one of each ;) She has no plates.
Every crash is different, as is every injury. You will need to defer to your docs advice regarding the plate issue, or seek a second opinion.

However, I could be wrong, as some of the members here have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. 

Good luck and heal up quick!

[kl3640]

In April of last year I shattered my wrist and hand.  That included about a 1" piece of the radius, the scaphoid, trapezium, trapezoid, etc.

I asked the same exact question of my orthopaedist, who is of the nation's top motorsports injury orthopaedic surgeons.  He also provided my follow-up care for the months after surgery.

Basically, as I understand it, once the plate is in and the screws are secure, the flesh is healed from the trauma of surgery, and the bone has mended around the securing plate such that all fracture lines are healed, it will be as strong or stronger than it was originally in that area.  In fact, when they are lucky enough to be able to use a plate, the recovery is often much faster, often not even requiring a hard cast.

In my case the bones were shattered so bad that when he tried to put in the plate the screws just kept turning and turning, kind of like a wood screw in a piece of wood that's no good.  So he used removable pins instead with a hard cast, and when I woke up the plate that I thought I would have wasn't there and instead I had a plaster cast and 3 straightened paper-clip looking pins sticking out of my wrist.

If he would have been able to use the plate then I would have only had a soft-case for a matter of weeks.  As it turned out in my case I had the hard cast for 6 weeks.  The additional disadvantage of not having the plate was that with the hard cast I couldn't use the hand/wrist area at all for those 6 weeks, and when they removed it I couldn't even move my wrist at all up or down.  So that took another 8 weeks of physical therapy.  Basically, I couldn't ride again until late Summer.

So the bottom line is that IF they can use the plate then your recovery will be faster and yes, the bone will be as strong as it was pre-break once the injury has healed (which is faster with the plate(s) than without).

[d-wire]

what he said.  A buddy of mine had this exact situation and his broke next to the plate the second time cause it was weaker.....same with one of my fractures....Good luck

[kl3640]

what he said.  A buddy of mine had this exact situation and his broke next to the plate the second time cause it was weaker.....same with one of my fractures....Good luck

That's a good example of the bone being stronger in the area of the plate than in the adjacent undamaged area.  When I used to do carpentry, Elmer's used to claim that their wood glue would make a stronger joint than the surrounding wood itself - if that's true, then it's a good analogy to what the metal plates do for the damaged bone.

One more thing that I forgot to mention is that, depending on the amount and type of metal used, you may need to get one of those wallet cards that identifies that you have metal in your body in order to not be too hasseled when going through airport security, etc.  I carried print-outs of my x-rays with me because otherwise they used to inspect my cast in airport security, using those little swabs that they then put in to the bomb-sniffing machines, etc.  Sometimes when I would show them the x-rays they would skip that part.

They use a variety of alloys for different purposes (titanium, stainless steel, and others) - I'm not sure what they would use for a broken clavicle, but be sure to check, because if it's stainless steel then it has a high iron content and may have enough mass to set off metal detectors.

[gntbldr]

Yo zeroice,

I'll do my best and it will almost be a repeat to some extent in regards to prior posts but here it goes.

back in '95 I shattered my right clavical. 4 places in two inches with fragments too. All in the center of the clavical. I chose not to have a plate put in.
In April of 96 I was back racing MX with no issues. yes I was scared of landing on that area again and I did. No worries.
There was so much calcium built up it made the entire collar bone Very strong.
The only worry i had was it would break on either side of the "mound" of calcium that was now there.
Crashed very hard a few more times and it didn't break. Cased a couple jumps and high-sided another.

I re-separated my right shoulder  and fractured my right scapula but I never broke the right clavical again.

I've had more than enough crashes on that shoulder since then and still no worries. Not that I'm saying it will be the same for you but if you go with proper diet and exercise I'd be willing to bet on a safe return to racing for you.

[zeroice]

yo, thanks for advice y'all!

Plate was already installed.

It hasnt been a week since surgery and I already rode a street bike today! Woohoo!

I guess it will be stronger than before and if anything, I'll break other stuff first.

go here for my xrays! http://picasaweb.google.com/crotch.rocket.roadracer/MyBrokenClavicle in case you're curious

[Jason748]

Well... I've got titanium plates on both mine 
Two year ago broke my left clavicle, it was severely displaced and I ended up getting it plated.  Healed great, no issues.
At the end of this last year I shattered my right clavicle, and got it plated with-in a week.  Again healed great with no issues.

My Otho who who has done "a few" plates for motorcycle guys (mostly MX) has recommended that I have both of mine removed if I am to continue racing.  He told me that if I were to cash in a way that puts enough pressure on the clavicle to break it, that with the plate(s) still in place the chances of a axial break (parallel to the plate) or breaking off one of the ends is very high and those type of breaks are much harder to repair and require longer to fully recover from.  By removing the plates it significantly reduces the chance of either of those types of breaks, and if it breaks, again, without the plates it would most likely break next to the previous break and would be easier to repair.

So it's looking like I'll be having both plates removed towards the end of the year, but I haven't decided for sure yet.

[ccs207]

Doc said the plate can stay in for life unless the screws start to back out...

Hope he used some loctite on those screws :) I think super Dave always recommends the bone healer for a speedy recover. good luck healin' bro.

[Scotty Ryan]

Hope he used some loctite on those screws :) I think super Dave always recommends the bone healer for a speedy recover. good luck healin' bro.

http://www.seacoastvitamins.com/product_info.php?products_id=803

Here's the link - Dave has always talked highly about the stuff... I had recently just crashed and broke some ribs and a finger down at the Daytona 200 - So I ordered the stuff and started taking it about a week ago.... Both the finger and the ribs are already almost 100%... So now I can say it works :)

[zeroice]

previous linky was bad, here is the new linky: http://picasaweb.google.com/crotch.rocket.roadracer/MyBrokenClavicleTheBikeIDestroyed

Jason, sorry to hear you broke both. So your doctor thinks the plates should be removed. The potential situation that your doctor described is what I fear. Still not sure what to do tho... I have till the end of the season to decide I guess...

So far the recover process is going very well. Still stiff and still need to take the pain pills regularly tho. I cant imagine not getting it plated. Even if it wasn't seperated as far as it was. I mean. I would have to be perfectly still for it to mend. Probably end up shooting myself.

Scotty, that stuff is cheap. I eat a pretty good whole food diet and juice just about every fresh vegetable/fruit I can get my hands on. But I'm sure in this situation it wont hurt to supplement it with some good ol' synthetic nutritional cocktails! I got it on order!

[kl3640]

Jason748, did your doctor discuss surgical risk vs. the risk of leaving the plates in?  I'm wondering because a lot of what I had to recover from with my wrist surgery was the 3 inch incision and the damage it did to muscle tissue and ligaments; so other than the atrophy caused by being in a cast for 6 weeks, that was the other reason that I needed so much physical therapy.