Collar bone plate or not

Some good info in here: https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/moto-related/plated-or-not-which-collarb…

What did the doc recommend?

I crashed my streetbike when I was younger and broke my collarbone and had a lot of shortening on that side. Docs told me itd be fine but its caused me s lot of pain my whole life. I always wish I had fixed it. I’m prob gonna try at some point to see if they can.

Plate it. Faster recovery, stronger. Can depend on how many fragments there are tho. And it's a cool scar.

This exactly. In the prior thread aeffertz’s referenced, I suggested getting a second opinion because every break is different. When I had a break a few years ago, the emergency room did xray/CT and told me it was just a minor clavicle fracture. I put off going to the ortho longer than I should have - their evaluation was a lot more damage than I was initially told. Broken in two places, middle of it butterflied, and splintered down to my sternum. I was on track to never get surgery and live with it up to that point. They had to re-break everything during surgery and then plate it up. Still have some discomfort today but I can still ride and work out. Live my life normally. No way in hell I would be doing that had I not gotten another look at it and corrected with plating.

I broke my collarbone in 5 pieces back in ‘23 at Millville during a race. 

Went to the hospital 50 mins away in Rochester and they said nothing they can do and I have to schedule a surgery to put it back together. Couldn’t find a surgeon that had availability until 1.5 week later. Worst pain of my life, shoulder was hanging off my body (literally) and I could only take Vicadon.

 Oddly enough I ran into Dr. McGinley back at the track (Sponsor of the series) and he hooked me up with some people he eknew at rush hospital in Chicago. They used his special tool he advertises, on me. 

Long story short I ended up with 9 screws and a plate in my bone. The pain after the surgery was weirdly worse than it was before. I could feel the metal in my bone and it was so cringe worthy and painful, for about 3-4 days.

When they do the surgery they cut open a portion of the shoulder to flap it over, but because they sometimes have to cut through nerves, you might lose feeling completely for a while. Recovery process was about 3 months before I was back on the bike racing. And 1-2 years until I gained full feeling with my nerves on my shoulder area. 

Fast forward to now, I don’t even notice it anymore. But I can still feel it if I pay attention. No problems yet for me, but eventually I think I may take it out. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to have titanium inserted into my body for the rest of my life. 

Plate, raced 12 days later. Go plate.

I was a useless bitch until my collarbone was plated. I was literally ready to do pull ups the day after surgery. The only weakness was the incision and staples.

Are you saying it broke more horizontally than vertically?   If so, that happened to mine in June of last year.   I didnt get it plated because the doctor said it looked like it was still lined up to heal on its own.   But when I went to my local doctor for a checkup two weeks later it had shifted slightly, but they said it wasnt enough to cause concern.   After 6 weeks, they didnt see any bone growth where they thought they would see it in the Xray's.   At week 7, i had a 3d CT scan that showed it was healing in the middle where the bones overlapped one another, and had two pointy edges sticking out on each side.   Doc said the edges will wear down over time.   Over 7 weeks in a sling because of all that, and had muscle atrophy when i finally came out of it.   Had to go to physical therapy afterwards to get my range of motion even close to what it was.... THEN, they discovered that I had a slightly torn rotator cuff as well...   7 months later and i'm finally starting to feel somewhat close to normal again.   Take that for what its worth.

Had mine plated 15 + years ago . Never had an issue apart from a little nerve damage across the surgery site that just makes that area feel very weird if I scratch it.

I had mine done at a hospital a few miles from Camp Pendleton, surgeon said 99% of his patients for those surgeries were marines that don’t pull their gun in to thier shoulder hard enough when firing and the recoil snaps them . 

Broke mine twice, no surgery, paid attention to it in shoulder harness once, no harness the second time ..  both healed fine and relatively fast.. 3 to 4 weeks and you are functional... 6 weeks, riding again... No chance of surgical complications, etcetera....

Plate. Broke mine pretty bad (in pieces) and had to wait 1.5 weeks for surgery.. totally sucked. I felt much better right away when I woke up from surgery. I had a bunch of broken ribs too, and surprisingly they felt a little better as well with everything in my shoulder back in place.

Not OP but curious for you guys that have gotten your collar bone plated… do you just live with the plate in there or do you get it removed eventually? I know these pro racers are a completely different animal as far as this shit goes but like OP said if he could return to work ASAP with it plated, what do you do down the road?

I broke mine but didn’t have a job at the time so I just wore a sling and let it heal on its own.  

I’ll leave mine in unless it gives me issues, it’s been in 15 + years. I got all the metal work taken out my back and immediately felt tons better but, for me, as far as collar bone goes a small plate and a bunch of screws in a little bone that’s not moving around much or taking a bunch of load isn’t a big deal ( I don’t ride anymore) . 

Useless fact - only takes 8lb of pressure to break that little wanker . 

Does the cold not fuck you up at all or are you not outside enough for it to matter? I take my wedding band off in the winter because even that is enough to aggravate my hand and make it painfully cold.  

Not at all. I had a bunch of stuff in my back also, unfortunately,  and it never bothered me even in midwinters in Northern Europe. 

I broke mine really close to my shoulder and my ortho said he would really not like to do surgery because of how close it was to my shoulder socket. I would just listen to your ortho before really making any decisions. 

get it plated. having your bones heal back incorrectly will cause more problems down the road. if you need you can always get it removed later. 

I've had a plate on mine since 1998 no issues the only time I even notice it is lifting weights a certain way I can feel that side just doesn't flex like the other side.  I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Had my right one plated in 2015 and broke my left one in 2018 (I think). The plated was definitely the way to go. Surgery always sucks, but man after a week I felt fine with the plate. The other one, I was riding at 5 weeks, but it took what seemed like 2 years before it felt normal. Even now doing push ups or pull ups it still doesn’t feel right. I vote plate it

I broke mine pretty bad back in 2021 and didn't have any choice but to get it. Didn't have much pain when riding but daily life wasn't exactly comfortable, so I pushed to have the hardware removed and had the plate taken out during the upcoming winter. I still have a couple of screws leftover from the first surgery that cause some pain (they couldn't be removed easily and had to stay) but have felt much better without the plate.

Plate it.

Of my two collarbones, the first was fixed, super fast recovery/mobility and riding full on at 10 weeks. Second time, doc let it ride and bond naturally, 16 weeks. Extra 6 weeks is a lot longer...fix it if you can.

Mine was broke in such a way that I could sit still with no pain but as soon as I moved, yikes. After the plates stabilized it recovery was a breeze. They sent me home from surgery with a pain blocker pump, injects right at the site on timed intervals. I turned it off the next day just to see what pain would be like and very tolerable so I pulled the tube out and threw away the device.

I had mine plated 3 years ago.  Hurts if I carry lumber or anything on that side because there is very little between the plate and my skin.  I do feel it from time to time while mountain biking - lifting or twisting in certain positions when jumping, clearing a log, etc.  Went back to my ortho for a shoulder issue on the other side and he said that the plated area was fully healed and that I could have it removed it is bothering me.  I probably won't have surgery simply to remove it, but if I do have to have surgery on the other shoulder, I may have him remove it at that time.  

Also, like one other person stated above, I do have nerve damage from the incision and parts of that shoulder feel strange or numb when scratching the area.

This sounds exactly like what happened to me. I broke my collarbone, fractured couple ribs , and bruised bloody face. I couldn’t move my upper body and could barely breathe without 9/10 pain. How long did it take for your ribs?

That was me.. Could barely move and getting in and out of bed? forget about it... like a 10 minute ordeal.  Once plated, game changer. 

Ribs took a couple of months before I could sneeze or cough without major pain. Take forever to heal. 

Collarbone was whatever.. Ribs were the worst part of the whole thing.

This is EXACTLY the problem I had. My dad broke his collarbone and it broke vertically right through, so there were 2 perfect equal bone ends that once theyre lined back up theyre pushing against each other and its fine. 

Mine broke horizontally so it snapped in half diagonally down the bone so there was no “ends” to line up. This meant that it wasnt able to pop into place and could only heal as good as the brace could hold it (which wasnt good) and the pain plus sleeping made it so it was very shortened. That was damn near 20 years ago at this point but I def need to get it fixed the bump on my shoulder is enormous and the entire bone is pushed way forward. U can still see a point stretching the skin, its ridiculous. The fact they said id be fine is nuts.

Hope surgery goes well, heal up buddy. You’ll be back at it before you know it.

We're two brothers from another mother! I had a collapsed lung as well lol