24 Nov Did your child fall onto their shoulder and broke their collarbone 

Did your child fall onto their shoulder and broke their collarbone 
Perhaps your child was involved in a tackle at sports that resulted in a collar bone

The collarbone is located between the chest bone and the shoulder blade. It is the bone that connects the arm to the body. The collar bone lies above several important nerves and blood vessels. However, these vital structures are rarely injured when a collarbone breaks. Collarbone fractures or breaks are fairly common and occur in people of all ages. Most fractures occur in the middle portion of the bone. Occasionally, the bone will break where it attaches at the ribcage or shoulder blade.

A collarbone fracture can be very painful and may make it hard to move your arm. Other signs and symptoms of a fracture may include:
Sagging of the shoulder downward and forward
Inability to lift the arm because of pain
A grinding sensation when you try to raise the arm
A deformity or “bump” over the break
Bruising, swelling, and/or tenderness over the collarbone

Most collarbone fractures can be treated by wearing a sling to keep the arm and shoulder from moving while the bone heals. With some collarbone fractures, however, the pieces of bone move far out of place when the injury occurs. For these more complicated fractures, surgery may be needed to realign the collarbone.

Bone healing takes 6 to 8 weeks in adults and 4 to 6 weeks in children. Having your arm in a sling for 4 to 8 weeks can result in a stiff shoulder and loss in shoulder movements. The most common mistake that we see as Expert Physiotherapists, is that most people do not realise that Physiotherapy is key to their rehabilitation post- fracture to help promote bone healing and prevent shoulder stiffness and loss of shoulder movement. A poorly managed broken collarbone can not only result in a deformed collarbone, it can result in loss in shoulder movement and function of the arm. 

Don’t let that happen to you or your child! If you or your child has broken a collarbone, ring My Favourite Physio on (02) 9790 4233 or DM us @myfavouritephysio to speak to one of our Expert Physiotherapists to find out how we can hep you.