I broke my collar bone (as well as my shoulder and 7 ribs) in June. The orthopedist at the ER immediately after the crash and my family doc both felt the collar bone break was pretty standard and likely to heal on it’s own. It hasn’t. I went back for X-rays last week and was informed I have “non union”. I’ll see an orthopedist next week but my family doc is suggesting surgery to “get it over with and get back to training” (he’s an avid cyclist himself).
What questions should I ask the orthopedist? I’ll be grateful for any feedback, insights or suggestions that those of you who have experience or may have gone through something like this yourself.
Non-union is a recognized complication of both surgical and non-surgical management of these fractures. Next steps are often ORIF (surgery with implantation of hardware) use of a bone graft or a bone stimulator. Much will depend on patient and fracture characteristics.
To the “doctor questions” in one of your earlier posts…do you have any comments on the impact of NOT having surgery given that my non-union is pretty clear on Xrays six months after the accident?
Thanks again.
Non-union is a recognized complication of both surgical and non-surgical management of these fractures. Next steps are often ORIF (surgery with implantation of hardware) use of a bone graft or a bone stimulator. Much will depend on patient and fracture characteristics.
Although I don’t know the specifics of your case, surgery is usually recommended for non-Union in cases where conservative management has failed.
You should ask what the expected success rates would be for someone in your situation would be, expected recovery time and worst case scenario, what would happen if you still had non-Union.
Broke my collar bone in 3 pieces in the mid-90s (hit by car). At that time, docs did not like to do surgical repair - so we took the wait and see approach. 12 painful weeks post break and officially declared a nonunion. Found an orthopedic surgeon who was comfortable doing the surgery and then finally the collarbone healed up - albeit a little slower than expected.
I would make sure you see a doc who has experience with surgical repair of non unions - there can be issues with waiting too long post break to have the surgery.
Hope you find a good doc and heal quickly. Broken collarbones are no fun!
I have a non-union, since breaking mine in 2006. I decided not to do anything about it. I got 2 different opinions, and both said it wasn’t a problem unless it bothered me. As a cyclist, it’s not been a problem. Might be different if I were swimming also.
I am not a MD but I did break mine in a bike crash a few years back. I was told the same initially and I opted to let it heal naturally. Mine did, but I remember the Ortho doc telling me that if I didn’t mind surgery I could be back on the bike a lot faster. I know how miserable it is, so I think I’d go for the surgery to get it over with. Hope it goes well.