Five Tips to Help Speed Up Healing A Bone Fracture or Your Recent Joint Replacement!

 Hey Team, 

As we finish the school year and officially enter the summer months, this is an excellent opportunity to review the best ways to improve fracture healing and recovery after a severe injury. 

WHAT TYPES OF FRACTURES AFFECT HEALING?

Fractures are broken into (pun intended) two types:  Open (compound) and Closed.

Open fractures often break through the skin and can be visible, but not always. Sometimes the fracture will pierce through the skin and recede back into the body. Due to the risk of infection, open fractures are more dangerous.

Closed Fractures:

•          Comminuted:  This is a fracture broken into multiple parts.   

•          Transverse:  When the fracture is broken perpendicular to the bone.

•          Oblique:  When the fracture is at an angle to the bone

•          Spiral:  The fracture spirals along the bone in a spiral pattern

COMMON CAUSES OF A FRACTURE

Stress to the bone beyond what it can resist will create a fracture. This will be a result of multiple situations. Here are a few examples:

•          Trauma:  direct impact on the bone

•          Stress:  Too much micro stress to the bone over a long period of time, leading to a minor fracture. Usually to the spine or tibia of the lower leg.

•          Pathologic:  Second to a disease process, for example, osteoporosis or bone-eroding cancer. 

FIVE WAYS TO HELP WITH HEALING A FRACTURE

1.         Avoid movement to the bone:  A cast, splint, or walking boot is placed on the fractured area to avoid too much action to the bone. A small amount of movement will stimulate healing, but too much activity will create a malunion fracture:  it never heals.

2.         Offload the injury:  The best way to offload the lower leg injury and still be mobile is with axillary crutches or a walker. The challenge is to use these correctly and fit these to your body properly. I have often seen people not using the crutches correctly and, as a result, developing secondary injuries. For example, the pads on the crutches should not touch the armpits, and you should be fully erect while using these: not hunched over. I made a video to help!!!! Feel free to email me, and I will send it to you. 

3.         Strengthen the core muscles:  The body's core muscles are used mainly to stabilize the trunk, thus giving a strong base to allow the muscles of the extremities(arms/legs) to pull from. These muscles will require continued strengthening to improve the upper or lower body's efficiency. If the fracture is to the arm or leg… you will need to continue strengthening the core muscles to give yourself the best opportunity to heal.

4.         Strengthening the opposite arm/leg:  If you have a fracture to the arm or leg… strengthen the opposite side to make the muscles of your fracture STRONGER! Really. Multiple studies have shown a cross-training effect on the muscles stimulated on the opposite side of the body. What does this mean? You lose less muscle mass while not using the arm/leg and maintain more strength. Essentially, your rehab after your immobilizer is removed will be less.

5.         Eat Well:  Yep! Nutrition can help you with healing faster. Here are a few examples to follow. Increase your protein. 

- Protein is 55% of our bone volume and has been shown to aid in reducing bone loss during healing. 

- Calcium:  This one is a no-brainer! We know it helps formulate bone growth and is essential for bone formation.

- Vitamin D:  Along with the need for Calcium, Vitamin D works with Calcium to help with bone formation. Sun is the best way our body makes Vitamin D, but if it is a long winter… you may use a supplement.

- Zinc: Another supplement may be Zinc as it can help speed up the bone healing process along with Calcium and Vitamin D.  Zinc has been shown to help unite bone fractures. 

Ok, Team!   As we know, a fracture can occur at any moment and cannot always be prevented. We must be ready to take care of the body when a fracture occurs and speed up healing recovery. Another TIP for you today…many of these principles can also be applied to anyone who has recently had surgery. These tips help you recover from a total hip replacement, knee replacement, or rotator cuff surgery. As always, thanks for the feedback and the email replies you keep giving me. If you have questions or comments… please fire away! Receiving your feedback is the best part of my day!

Keep Moving!!!

•          The author, Rob Sumner, is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and owner of Sumner Specialized Physical Therapy. He's happy to answer any questions about this article, wellness, fitness, or physical therapy overall by phone at (509) 684-5621 or by email at Rob@SumnerPT.com