How Do You Wrap A Cracked Rib

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Broken ribs — Comprehensive. Doctors would use compression wraps — elastic bandages that you can wrap around your chest. If you break a rib because of.

DEAR DOCTOR K: I recently broke a couple of ribs, and the pain is so bad I can hardly move. I can’t sleep at night and I can’t take a deep breath. I went to the doctor, but he said there isn’t much he can do.

Do You Wrap Cracked Ribs

I was surprised that he didn’t even tape up my ribs. Is there anything I can do to help my ribs heal quicker and ease my discomfort? DEAR READER: I understand why you ask the question. If you’ve ever fractured a bone, it has probably been put in a plaster cast or a splint. Keeping the broken parts of the bone from moving helps the bone heal and reduces the pain. The pain from a fracture generally occurs when the broken parts of the bone move.

You know the old joke: “I’m OK, doc. It only hurts when I move.” And rib fractures, like any fracture, do hurt. So why didn’t your doctor try to keep your broken ribs from moving by taping your ribs? Here’s the dilemma: Your ribs have to move every time you take a breath. And we all need to breathe. In addition, after a rib fracture, the surrounding bones and muscles generally hold the bones together well enough on their own.

Wrap
  • The usual cause of a cracked rib or broken rib rib is a blow to the chest. Cracked rib and broken rib. Do not tape or tightly wrap the injured rib area.
  • Jan 17, 2018 Before you start treating yourself at home, make sure your rib isn't broken. Lightly run your hands over your.

Over time, the fracture heals and the pain goes away. But that doesn’t mean that nothing can be done to ease your discomfort in the meantime. For any fracture, it’s important to relieve pain. Relatively high doses of painkillers available over-the-counter can be sufficient. That includes acetaminophen (Tylenol) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or naproxen (Aleve).

If these do not provide sufficient relief, your doctor should prescribe a more potent prescription painkiller. I have prescribed narcotic pain relievers such as codeine to ease the pain of rib fractures. Your doctor should also make sure that nothing more serious has happened. Sometimes a broken rib punctures an artery and causes internal bleeding around the lung, which can cause shortness of breath. Rarely, a broken rib can cause a “punctured lung,” or pneumothorax, in which the lung collapses and air enters the space around the lung. This can cause severe pain and shortness of breath. Occasionally, fluid or air collects outside the lung and squeezes the lung.

This also can cause shortness of breath. How do people fracture ribs?

By far the most common cause is trauma. Another cause is coughing — really strong, repeated coughing. Every time a person coughs, the muscles and bones (ribs) of the chest are working extremely hard. Air is coming out of your mouth at hundreds of miles an hour.

The force of coughing can sometimes break a rib, even a healthy rib. However, when a patient of mine breaks a rib from coughing, I usually do testing to look for conditions that can weaken ribs — particularly a cancer that has spread to the bones. It’s a rare cause of rib fractures, but it can occur. I’ve never seen a patient with a broken rib caused by cancer. It’s always been someone like you, and it always has healed completely.

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Should You Wrap A Cracked Rib

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Diagnosis During the physical exam, your doctor will press gently on your ribs. He or she might also listen to your lungs and watch your rib cage move as you breathe.

Your doctor likely will order one or more of the following imaging tests:. X-ray. Using low levels of radiation, X-rays make bones visible.

But X-rays often have problems revealing fresh rib fractures, especially if the bone is merely cracked. X-rays are also useful in diagnosing a collapsed lung. This often can uncover rib fractures that X-rays might miss. Injuries to soft tissues and blood vessels are also easier to see on CT scans. This technology takes X-rays from a variety of angles and combines them to depict cross-sectional slices of your body's internal structures. This can be used to look at the soft tissues and organs around the ribs to determine if there's damage.

It can also help in the detection of more subtle rib fractures. An MRI uses a powerful magnet and radio waves to produce cross-sectional images. This technique is good for viewing stress fractures, where a bone is cracked after repetitive trauma — such as long bouts of coughing. During a bone scan, a small amount of radioactive material is injected into your bloodstream. It collects in the bones, particularly in places where a bone is healing, and is detected by a scanner. Treatment Most broken ribs heal on their own within six weeks.

Restricting activities and icing the area regularly can help with healing and pain relief. Medications It's important to obtain adequate pain relief — if it hurts to breathe deeply, you may develop pneumonia. If oral medications don't help enough, your doctor might suggest injections of long-lasting anesthesia around the nerves that supply the ribs.

Therapy Once your pain is under control, your doctor might prescribe breathing exercises to help you breathe more deeply because shallow breathing can put you at risk of developing pneumonia. In the past, doctors would use compression wraps — elastic bandages that you can wrap around your chest — to help splint and immobilize the area. Compression wraps aren't recommended for broken ribs anymore because they can keep you from breathing deeply, which can increase the risk of pneumonia. Preparing for your appointment Because many broken ribs are caused by motor vehicle accidents, you may find out you have a broken rib in a hospital's emergency department. If you break a rib because of repetitive stress over time, you'll likely see your primary care provider. Here's some information to help you get ready for your appointment What you can do Before you see your primary care provider, make a list of:.

Your symptoms, including any that may seem unrelated to the reason you made the appointment. Key personal information, including recent accidents. All medications, vitamins and supplements you take, including doses.

Questions to ask your doctor Take a family member or friend along, if possible, to help you remember the information you're given. For broken ribs, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:.

How long will I be in pain?. What treatments are available, and which do you recommend?. How can I best manage this with my other health conditions?. Do I need to restrict my activities? Don't hesitate to ask other questions. What to expect from your doctor Your doctor may ask:. When did your symptoms begin?.

Where is your pain?. Are your symptoms continuous or occasional?. How severe is your pain?. Did anything happen to cause it?.

Does any action make the pain better or worse?. Karlson KA. Initial evaluation and management of rib fractures. Accessed Oct.

Eiff MP, et al. Rib fractures. In: Fracture Management for Primary Care. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2012. Accessed Oct.

Inpatient management of traumatic rib fracture. Accessed Oct. Preventing falls and related fractures. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Accessed Oct.