Ouch!!!

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Here are the responses I've received so far. All respondents have had broken collar bones except #3. Unfortunately it sounds like the advice you were given was sound.
  1. Dr Chabra who works out of oshawa general, and the oshawa clinic. He did mine, though he said most are moving away from doing collarbone surgery now.
  2. I am seeing a surgeon at st joeseph hospital in London. Chris saw a surgeon at Victoria hospital in London for his collar bone.
  3. There's a really good doctor in Lindsay if that isn't too far. Dr Al-Beer
  4. Sorry Wobs, I don't have any references. I saw a Sunnybrook trauma doctor in GTA. However, standard practice (ugh) for a broken collarbone is usually to set it & sling it & leave it for 6 months to see if it heals by itself. Many times it will. Rarely do physicians operate right away. OHIP mandates they wait 6 mos. to verify a non-union before surgery is authorized. When I broke mine in Sept 2008, it never healed... it was broken in 2-3 places. I had to wait until April 2009 to have surgery. Even with a plate, the bones never grafted after a few years. It's a crap shoot, really.
  5. What #4 said. I've only known one person to have surgery on a broken collarbone and that was because she literally obliterated it. They usually leave them to heal on their own.
  6. When I broke my collarbone I got the same advice from two different doctors. It is painful in a sling because it does move around a little, but in the end it healed fine on its own.

I hope at least you were given pain killers.
 
Just for the record, standard practise is generally to leave it to heal on its own. I recommended St. Mike's because getting a referral is a breeze, when the specialist also works in the ER on occasion.
 
RockerGuy said:
I'll consult with another professional.
Nicely put, that sounds like retarded advice to me
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It's standard advice.

Simple, uncomplicated collar bone fractures come together quite well, even though there will be a resulting deformity of some degree (some worse than others). You just have to stay in the sling (or a figure 8 sling) for 6 to 8 weeks and not move the shoulder.

Keep in mind, anatomically speaking, a person can do quite well (not perfect) without a collar bone.

They only surgically repair the fracture in cases where there are multiple breaks in the bone (because it obviously won't set on its own), or the bone fragments are compromising the blood vessels (subclavian artery) or nerves (brachial plexus) in the area...or if you're a high level athlete and need every ounce of performance to remain competitive.

Walking into a different emergency room to get an orthopedic consult may be an idea, but you'll likely get flagged since you've already been to North York Gen.
I suggest talking to your family doctor and getting a referral to an orthopedic surgeon.

However, the good ones are always busy. In Ontario, you likely won't get surgery for awhile, even if you find a surgeon willing to do it.
There's a top notch shoulder surgeon in Newmarket (does a LOT of rotator cuff repairs), and his waiting time is a year.

In contrast, a friend of mine who used to mountain bikes competitively had his repaired (collar bone was broken into 3 pieces) within 4 or 6 weeks I believe. This was in B.C., however, and even then, he had to push for it (he argued that for it to heal naturally would take most of a year, and he needed to be competitive in a couple months).
 
BusaBob said:
They only surgically repair the fracture in cases where there are multiple breaks in the bone (because it obviously won't set on its own), or the bone fragments are compromising the blood vessels (subclavian artery) or nerves (brachial plexus) in the area...or if you're a high level athlete and need every ounce of performance to remain competitive.
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Or if there's substantial displacement, that is very unlikely to permit proper healing.
 
Delboy said:
I broke my Collar Bone at the weekend. Its offset 1.5 inches (the piece closest to my neck is 1.5 inches higher than the other) and its overlapping 2 inches.

I went to the fracture clinic at North York yesterday and they said there is nothing they can do, just wear a sling and it will eventually heal like that. I'll always have a bump and it will always be 2 inches shorter.

Does anyone know of a good ortho surgeon that could straighten it out and plate it? Even in the US. I'm in so much pain I'll even pay for it


Thanks in advance
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You have to consult with this doctor:
Dr. Vik Tuli - orthopaedic surgeon
17215 Leslie Street unit J
Newmarket
905-953-0864
He performs all the surgeries at Southlake in Newmarket.

When other doctors were talking about amputation of my left leg below the knee (dirt bike accident), he has rebuild it and six years later, I'm still able to enjoy motorcycling and other sports. Four years after my surgery, he scheduled another one to remove all of the hardware he put in! He's a very conservative doctor, but as long as you play by his rules, you will recover fine. Good luck and speedy recovery!
 
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Ditto - I took part in this study after breaking mine. They wanted to see what the short term consequences were from non surgery versus surgery. In short, nip down to St. Mikes and have them look at it.

The doctor that was part of the study and based out of St Michaels was, apparently, on the front cover of Time magazine shortly beforehand. Quick google should find his name.

I'm 99% certain this is the guy: http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/research/profile.php?id=mckee&

Not quite sure how your get the referral though. Good luck.

Rob MacLennan said:
I broke my left collarbone twice. The first time I was told that it would just heal, don't worry, we don't plate or pin the things. It took more than 8 months to finally heal properly, still way out of line.

The second time I had already been to St. Mike's with a racer friend, who had a bad two point collarbone break, and was dealt with by one of the best othropods in the country there. I can't remember the names but there are two doctors, at St. Michael's, who did a study on plating collarbone breaks in the 2000s. Both of them work with the ER there and both are very respected, nationally. Unfortunately my second break wasn't a candidate, being less than a diameter of separation (the first was more like yours), so it just healed naturally. I was told that my first break, from the X-Ray, would definitely have been a candidate.

Try just walking into the St. Mike's ER and see what happens. I got a referral for a couple of days later, with one of the guys I mentioned.
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I went down and shattered mine in 3 places in Aug 2011. It was really bad from the x-rays as the bones weren't even close to touching. I went to the Emerg at Credit Valley to get it looked at. They then scheduled my surgery at Trillium Hospital at Hurontario and Dundas. I had to wait 4 weeks, but the minute I was put back together - all immediately felt better. It won't heal dude, you need surgery. Go to different hospitals until you get put back together.
 
McKee is the guy you want to see!

http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/research/profile.php?id=mckee&

Keenan Research Centre

Scientist Profiles

mckee.jpg
Michael D. McKee

MD, University of Toronto; FRCS(C) (orthopedics), University of Toronto
Affiliations

Adjunct Scientist in the Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital
Professor, Surgery, University of Toronto
Clinical Specialty

Orthopaedic surgery
Research Interests

Fracture care and post traumatic reconstruction, nonunion and malunion, ilizarov procedure, randomized clinical trials
Research Activities

My interest is in the care of fractures, post-traumatic reconstruction and malunion/nonunion. I have a particular interest in randomized clinical trials in fracture care, especially of the upper extremity.
Other Activities


  1. Member, Orthopaedic Trauma Association
  2. Chair, COA Committee of Exchange Fellowships
  3. Member, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons
  4. Founding Member, Canadian Orthopaedic Trauma Society
Educational Activities

I typically have one clinical fellow and one clinical resident. Occasionally I will accept a research resident or student.
Contact

E-mail: MckeeM@smh.ca
Phone: 416-864-5880
Fax: 416-359-1601
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I had an excellent experience at North York General 8 weeks ago. I shattered my collar bone into several pieces on a Tuesday night around 7pm and had surgery at 4pm the next day. I compete in multiple sports and explained to the emerg DR. that I wanted surgery, she referred me to an excellent ortho surgeon name Dr. Christopher Pesken (spelling?) at the ortho clinic at North York. He saw me the next morning and scheduled me in for the afternoon. 8 weeks later I am back competing and working out with zero pain. I highly recommend you look him up.

It is hard to tell from the picture but there are four fractures and the middle piece that does not have screws in it is actually two floating pieces. My posture looks perfect today with no bias to either side and it feels as good as new.

35hfp0y.jpg
 
JAMUS said:
I went down and shattered mine in 3 places in Aug 2011. It was really bad from the x-rays as the bones weren't even close to touching. I went to the Emerg at Credit Valley to get it looked at. They then scheduled my surgery at Trillium Hospital at Hurontario and Dundas. I had to wait 4 weeks, but the minute I was put back together - all immediately felt better. It won't heal dude, you need surgery. Go to different hospitals until you get put back together.
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4 weeks?

That's awful.

I broke the bujeezus out of mine on a Sunday and had it plated on the following Wednesday.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Broke mine in a low side at Grand Bend 2 years ago.
Snapped about 1.5" from the end.
It healed, but an awkward angle, and has built a ton of bone around the area. I have a large permanent lump (bone callous).

Surgeon said he wouldn't touch it due to OHIP. BUT, if I had mashed the rest of my shoulder, he would simply have taken the broken off end piece and thrown it out.

I'm guessing it hurts the most when you are getting out of bed, getting up from a prone position etc.
I found stabilizing the broken area with my other hand helped a lot.
Example: broken left collar bone:
Put your right hand over the break to where you can feel the bone misalignment, gently put on some downward pressure.
Grab the right side of your shirt (rib cage area) with your left hand. The combination downward pressure and arm across stomach should help stabilize the broken area a bit.

Stand up all in one motion - don't stop at sitting position etc. When standing up from bed, I found it helpful to shimmy myself to the edge of the mattress, hang my leg over the edge, raise it up 45 degrees, and drop it, all while tightening my stomach muscles and using the leg weight to help cantilever myself upwards.

This worked for me. I'm not a medical professional nor am I giving medical advice. I'm simply relaying what made life easier for me when I had a broken clavicle.
 
BusaBob said:
It's standard advice.

Simple, uncomplicated collar bone fractures come together quite well, even though there will be a resulting deformity of some degree (some worse than others). You just have to stay in the sling (or a figure 8 sling) for 6 to 8 weeks and not move the shoulder.

Keep in mind, anatomically speaking, a person can do quite well (not perfect) without a collar bone.

They only surgically repair the fracture in cases where there are multiple breaks in the bone (because it obviously won't set on its own), or the bone fragments are compromising the blood vessels (subclavian artery) or nerves (brachial plexus) in the area...or if you're a high level athlete and need every ounce of performance to remain competitive.

Walking into a different emergency room to get an orthopedic consult may be an idea, but you'll likely get flagged since you've already been to North York Gen.
I suggest talking to your family doctor and getting a referral to an orthopedic surgeon.

However, the good ones are always busy. In Ontario, you likely won't get surgery for awhile, even if you find a surgeon willing to do it.
There's a top notch shoulder surgeon in Newmarket (does a LOT of rotator cuff repairs), and his waiting time is a year.

In contrast, a friend of mine who used to mountain bikes competitively had his repaired (collar bone was broken into 3 pieces) within 4 or 6 weeks I believe. This was in B.C., however, and even then, he had to push for it (he argued that for it to heal naturally would take most of a year, and he needed to be competitive in a couple months).
Click to expand...

You're in that field so I will not argue with you.
I was alluding to having a professional opinion rather than looking for an answer on a motorcycle forum.

Once bone reforms it is hard to correct them again. Its like working with cement
 
SLaP said:
McKee is the guy you want to see!

http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/research/profile.php?id=mckee&
Click to expand...

Yup Mckee is the man him and Dr Jeremy Hall make a great team.He was the only surgeon in Ontario willing to even attempt repairing my leg with 16 screws and two plates while doctors in Ottawa were discussing amputation like Koval was saying. He was sent to Iraq to show the American doctors new techniques for all those poor soldiers.
 
Thanks to All.

My family doctor was able to get me a referral to Dr. McKee at St Mikes. I have an appointment Wednesday morning :)
 
best of luck! hope you have a smooth a speedy recovery!
 
Thanks to everyone.

Dr McKee was the first person I spoke to that really inspired confidence and it looks like I have to go under the knife :(

The only sad thing is it looks like my 2014 season is effectively done, although hoping I may be able to get out in September.
 
^ Wishing you a successful operation and a speedy recovery! Let us know how it goes!
 
Wish I'd had this info last year...
Breakdown starts with the innocuous intake question: "what do you do for a living"
I sit at a desk so I was handed a sling. Found out later if I'd said I work in something labor oriented I would have been fixed. Took me 4 months to do 1 pushup.
Social care at it's finest. How much do these specialist guys charge for fixing? I'd be interested in re-breaking and fixing if it's not too much. I just wish I'd lied to the intake nurse.
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