You never want to have any bone fracture, but an avulsion fracture can be unusually severe. An avulsion fracture is when a tendon or ligament that is attached to the bone pulls a piece of it off. Avulsion fractures can happen to any tendon or ligament in the body, but you tend to see these kind of fractures with the hip, finger, ankle, and foot. The injury is a comprehensive athletic injury. To overcome these injuries, you would want to do everything you can to prevent them from happening. If you do happen to suffer from one of these fractures, knowing the signs can save you a lot of pain. A common example of an avulsion fracture is when the hip pulls a piece of the iliac crest off.
Causes of Avulsion Fracture
Avulsion fractures tend to happen when a bone and the ligament or tendon attached to it are moving in different directions. The injury is a very traumatic injury to have. When these are moving in the opposite direction, the ligament or tendon can no longer stretch and instead of tearing it, it breaks off a piece of bone and stays attached to that piece. The injury affects the following groups the most:
Children: When experiencing growth spurts, children are at highest risks of this injury as the muscles and forces they can produce are getting stronger. As muscles get stronger, so do the tendons, and before you know it they are stronger than the bone structure of the body. Children who play sports are also at even more of a risk.
Athletes: Sports that involve twists and turns and a lot of force being generated, are at a higher risk of an avulsion fracture. If an athlete gets hit or experiences an impact during any of these high force generation moments, it also increases the chances of a fracture.
Dancers: The feet of dancers are always at risk of avulsion fracture due to how much they are used and the quick, forceful movements that are put through the feet.
Symptoms of an Avulsion Fracture
- Intense sudden pain
- You will know right away that something is wrong
- Swelling
- Bruising
- Severe pain when trying to move joint or bone
Diagnoses of Avulsion Fracture
The problem with avulsion fractures is that they do not always feel like broken bones. Since the tendon or ligament is involved, they can feel a lot more like muscle strains or tendon injuries. That opens the door for misdiagnoses because you can explain the pain thinking it is a muscle issue instead. Any doctor you will see will use an X-ray, MRI, or a Cat Scan to get a full picture of what is going on.
If you get a misdiagnosis for an avulsion fracture, you can end up getting more hurt from using a muscle that just pulled some of your bone off. The muscle will not be able to generate as much power so you may think that it just needs rest or to be strengthened.
Treatment of Avulsion Fracture
Most of the time avulsion fractures do not require surgery. In cases where the tendon or ligament has pulled the bone entirely away from the structures, surgery will be needed to reattach things. The key to the avulsion fracture healing is resting and giving the body a time to adjust.
It will swell and do everything it can to stop you from moving. Rest and ice will help that swelling to go down so you can start walking again and at a very slow pace. You will be working with a sports medicine provider to help get back to full health.
You want to keep weight off of the injured area as much as possible. Doing so may involve using crutches or being in a wheelchair for a while to get the bone a chance to rest and heal.
When pain completely goes away, usually the bone has reattached and is healed. If the pain is still felt, chances are you need more rest time. If after eight weeks you still notice pain, you should in and see a healthcare provider and make sure that everything is okay.
Special Treatments for Avulsion Fractures
There may be cases where you need to do things for an avulsion fracture that are specific to the area that you hurt. For example, a hip avulsion fracture may require crutches, whereas one to the foot may need some hard shoes. Here are some more cases:
Fingers – If your finger suffers an avulsion fracture you need to see a specialist figure out the best plane of action.
Foot – The foot will require wearing hard shoes, so nothing hits or bumps into your foot.
Ankle – May need a boot to help keep the ankle steady and improve healing time.
The recovery plan can be different based on your injury and the timeline and of when you need to be healthy again. The critical thing is to work with the respective healthcare providers. Do not face this injury on your own!
Finding The Best Local Sports Medicine Providers for Anterior Deltoid Pain and The Deltoid Muscle
9INE POINT Health is the best place to start your search for a health care provider to help you stay healthy. The key to success as an athlete is staying healthy and making sure the injuries are dealt with appropriately. Any athlete in power sports is at risk of having an avulsion fracture, and the key to success as an athlete is staying healthy.
9INE POINT Health lets you search for providers by type and skill. For example, you can look for a Physical Therapist with the capability of the Graston Technique. It does not matter what kind of provider you need, 9INE POINTHealth can help you find them and help you to sort through their skills.
If you are unsure where to start your journey, 9INE POINT Health will ask you questions and help you figure out the best starting place. All you have to do is answer a few questions. From there, 9INE POINT Health will connect you with the type of provider best suited for your needs. It does not matter if you are injured or making sure you don’t run into avulsion fracture.
The platform makes it easy to compare health providers as they are all given a 9INE POINT Number. How do you decide which healthcare providers are the best? Reading bios and reviews is just not enough because you need more than that.
Skill Sets to Look for In Sports Medicine Providers An Avulsion Fracture Recovery
Skill sets are the things healthcare providers learn after they graduate. A healthcare provider can take courses and get certifications for different skill sets. These skill sets are valuable and help them approach injuries from different perspectives so that you can get the best help at the right time for any Avulsion Fracture.
- Dry needling
- Acupuncture
- Joint Manipulation
- Active Release Technique
- Graston Technique
- Functional Movement Screen
- Fascial Stretching
- Strength and Conditioning Coach
- Athletic Trainer
- Sports Background
- And many more
KHO Health was acquired by was acquire by 9INE POINT in the summer of 2019 and is now referred to as 9INE POINT Health.
9INE POINT Health was created by 9INE POINT in '19 as a means to provide athlete-driven resources to "Protect Athletes' Minds, Body and Belly". As well as be a platform for healthcare providers and other specialists to display their knowledge.
