Fractured elbow- radial head and haemarthrosis

[poo at Paul's]

Bugger. Triped coming back from the postbox yesterday and fell heavily on my left side. I now sport the above injury, and they've just put it in a sling.

I hurts a fair bit and is getting worse. After the accident, i could straighten it ok, but it was sore, but less than 24 hours later, i cannot, and my wrist and upper arm, (both uninjured) hurt and ache like a so and so!

I take whafrin (sp) for a dvt incurred post surgery 2 years ago, so bleeding from the bone will be worse. But any ortho surgeons on here know if a sling is all i should have? No advice on ice or moviing it, elevation of it etc, has been provided.

Cheers

[K77 CTR]

When you say fractured elbow/ radial head, do you mean you've only fracture your radial head? If so, then yes a broad arm sling is how it is treated.

You should ice it regularly (10 mins 3-4 hourly) regular analgesia (that doesn't interfere with your warfarin) gentle mobilisation of shoulder/ wrist to prevent stiffness and review in fracture clinic.

[poo at Paul's]

cheers. i cannot get it anywhere near straight though, now. only have about 39 degrees self powered movement, maybe 20 more if i hold it move it with the other hand.

its a proper pisser!

[K77 CTR]

It's in a sling for a reason, stop trying to extend it and leave it to mend. Once the ortho docs tell you to, then you can start mobilising it. Be patient!

[bexVN]

Fractured radial head several months ago plus depression of the joint, I still remember the pain, the horrendous bruising etc.
Agree lots of rest for few days. I assume you will be having a check up soon. They almost considered surgery for me but luckily they decided against it. Keep an eye on swelling which could be indicating bleeding. I didn't have too worry about that.

I did however have a six month old baby to look after at the time! life was fun for a while!! Try changing a nappy with your dominant arm in a sling and it being kicked by the baby. I'm afraid the little'un heard a few expletives he should not have!

Physio made a big difference to my extension abilities but it's never going to be as good as before

Hope it's feeling better soon.

[The_Doc]

poo at Paul's said:

Bugger. Triped coming back from the postbox yesterday and fell heavily on my left side. I now sport the above injury, and they've just put it in a sling.

I hurts a fair bit and is getting worse. After the accident, i could straighten it ok, but it was sore, but less than 24 hours later, i cannot, and my wrist and upper arm, (both uninjured) hurt and ache like a so and so!

I take whafrin (sp) for a dvt incurred post surgery 2 years ago, so bleeding from the bone will be worse. But any ortho surgeons on here know if a sling is all i should have? No advice on ice or moviing it, elevation of it etc, has been provided.

Cheers

I'm an ortho surgeon. IF you have an undisplaced fracture then...

Sling for 2-3 weeks, but start gentle arm movements at 3-5 days and throw sling away at 3 weeks.

Ref: http://www.wheelessonline.com/ortho/type_i_radial_...

[MM]

count your self lucky, I fractured my elbow about 2 or 3 years ago, required two ops and i've lost about 25 to 30% mobility in both directions and about 90% of strength in my tricep muscle,

The surgeon told me Physio was a waste of time and that I can look forward to arthritis within 2 to 10 years, not bad going for a 24 year old

but that will teach me to play with motorbikes.

[cbcbcb]

I broke the radial head in both arms falling off my bike. From my experience, take the painkillers, don't hurry back to work, and don't try to force yourself to use the injured arm. As it recovers, you can start to use it a bit, but don't do anything which makes it hurt.

Broken bones will heal on their own schedule (about 6 weeks depending on age) and you can't force them to heal faster, so there's no benefit in trying to push yourself to use your arm too much. Once the bones have healed a suitable amount you should get a physio appointment where you should be given exercises which will restore the mobility.

My timeline was something like:
1 week after injury: much reduced need for painkillers
2 weeks: mostly pain-free
4 weeks: back at work
5 weeks: physio appointment
6 weeks: physio exercises pain-free
7/8 weeks: fully recovered.

Presumably, you have an appointment at the fracture clinic, they should explain the healing/recovery process to you there.

[bexVN]

MM said:

count your self lucky, I fractured my elbow about 2 or 3 years ago, required two ops and i've lost about 25 to 30% mobility in both directions and about 90% of strength in my tricep muscle,

The surgeon told me Physio was a waste of time and that I can look forward to arthritis within 2 to 10 years, not bad going for a 24 year old

but that will teach me to play with motorbikes.

My surgeon didn't think physio was worth it but he did refer me 2 months later. I only had one session and it improved my range of movement immediately. I had a few exercises to continue with. I have 90% use now with aches twinges and some weakness but it doesn't cause too many probs which is a relief as it is my dominant arm.

[MM]

bexVN said:

My surgeon didn't think physio was worth it but he did refer me 2 months later. I only had one session and it improved my range of movement immediately. I had a few exercises to continue with. I have 90% use now with aches twinges and some weakness but it doesn't cause too many probs which is a relief as it is my dominant arm.

I did have physio after the first op but it got to the point were the physio couldn't see any more progress, I was making progress during the sessions but with in the week that had past between them I was losing it again, hence the need for the second op after which I instantly gained an extra 20 odd degrees of movement. The surgeon said that a physio was going to do no better than letting nature taking its course.

[bexVN]

Ah I see

[poo at Paul's]

Well i saw specialist on Sat, less than 2 days since the injury. It is an undisplaced injury, but 3 fractures of the radial head, so quite lucky it didnt fall to pieces!!

He said mobilise it as much as i can, in bend and rotating it, (wrist). I explained that weirdly most of the pain is in the wrist and lower arm, not so much in the elbow which is stiff and achy, but not too bad. Pretty much off the painkillers now, just a codeine tab before bed.

I can even change gear in the car ok, just extended the lever a bit with some ally pipe, to save the reach.

So just now it seems not too bad, fragile, yes, achy, yes and pretty nasty looking. But i am getting mobility back to it quite rapidly, and only 5 days since i did it, too.

So fingers crossed!!

[bexVN]

Yep I had that to, my wrist/inside lower arm was really painful yet that hadn't been injured directly, I remember my baby kicking my lower arm/wrist area (when attemting to change his nappy) it was painful enough to bring me to tears (which I hadn't even done when I fell!)

All the best for your recovery, 3 fractures is impressive.

[The_Doc]

bexVN said:

Yep I had that to, my wrist/inside lower arm was really painful yet that hadn't been injured directly, I remember my baby kicking my lower arm/wrist area (when attemting to change his nappy) it was painful enough to bring me to tears (which I hadn't even done when I fell!)

All the best for your recovery, 3 fractures is impressive.

3 fracture lines, one fracture, I'm not impressed. But the only stuff that impresses me is this sort of thing, the infamous Schatzker VI:
CLICK ME

[poo at Paul's]

Well, just over 2 weeks in and all was going pretty well, sling off the last few days, arm getting good at bending, (about 90% full bend) but still stiff to straighten, (about 70% straight I'd say). But I was still having lots of wrist pain, elbow ok though pretty much.

BUT... then today, the an odd thing happened, I had my sling on as arm was a bit sore from doing a fair bit yesterday, so was giving it a rest. Then walking round the garden, a bee flew up into my sling and under the cuff of my swetashirt......I instinctively just "flicked" my wrist, as one would to remove the bee, and HOLY st, the pain up in my elbow, was horrific.....I pretty much went completely grey and nearly passed out... Absolute agony for about 3 mins, then just a "dead arm" feeling for about 20 mins. I iced it and kept it still, and now (a few hours later) it is just in a tubigrip and feels pretty ok, just like before I did it.

So a reminder that it is still not fixed by any means, but am a bit concerned that I may have tweaked it and wondering if I should have another Xray on it to check nothign is displaced? Or, can I assume that if I had done anything worse than just get a hell of a lot of pain, it would still be hurting worse now and would have worse movement now than before?

Proper pain in the arm!

[bexVN]

I remember doing something equally as reactive a couple weeks after, I had some raisins, I went to throw them into my mouth (like you do with peanuts, popcorn etc) ended dropping them all on the floor due to the excruciating pain that shot from my elbow (plus a yell to go with it!) if I remember I was ok shortly after and no further damage done, though I did worry that I could have done!

Fingers croos no more episodes!