Shoulder Fractures

Shoulder fractures can occur when the shoulder receives a direct blow as a result of a fall, car accident, or collision. The shoulder is made up of three bones: the shoulder blade, collar bone, and arm bone. It is not easy to fracture the shoulder blade because it is protected by the chest and surrounding muscles, but it is possible. Shoulder pain treatment for a fracture can take several weeks for a complete recovery depending on the location of the fracture. Your doctor can help you achieve shoulder pain relief while your shoulder injury is healing.

General symptoms of a shoulder fracture include pain, swelling, bruising, loss of motion, a grinding sensation, and deformity of the shoulder. A clavicle, or collarbone, fracture will cause swelling in the mid-collarbone area and you may have a bump where the ends of the fracture are protruding under the skin. You will experience limited mobility with this type of shoulder injury.

Symptoms of a fracture to the humerus bone will cause severe swelling of the shoulder area and extremely limited movement. It also causes severe shoulder pain. Scapular fracture symptoms include shoulder pain, swelling, and bruising around the shoulder blade.

Your doctor will perform an examination and order an x-ray to confirm that the shoulder is fractured. Once a diagnosis is made, shoulder pain treatment can begin. Clavicle fractures can be corrected without surgery, unless the fracture has broken the skin or the bones are severely misplaced. In these cases, the physician would use plates, screws, or rods to fix the bones.

Humerus fractures can also be treated without surgery if the bones are not displaced. If the bone fragments are out of position, it too will require the use of plates, screws, pins, or even a shoulder replacement to correct the shoulder injury.

Most scapula fractures can be treated with immobilization, ice packs, and pain medications, but as many as 20% of these fractures require surgery. Those that need surgery usually involve the shoulder joint and have additional fractures that require plates and screws to repair.