Difficulty in diagnosing the pathological nature of an acute fracture of the clavicle: a case report.
case_report · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 19555487.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1186/1749-799X-4-21 and PMC identifier 2711919.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Fractures of the clavicle comprise between 5% to10% of all fractures. Medial clavicular fractures are uncommon and are normally caused by high-energy trauma. A low impact mechanism of injury should raise suspicion of a pathological fracture, but this case report highlights the difficulty in diagnosing the pathological nature of an acute fracture of the clavicle. We describe a patient who presented with a medial clavicular fracture after a simple fall but the fracture was diagnosed as pathological in retrospect four months after the initial presentation. We would also like to emphasise that the medial clavicle is the most frequent site of pathological fractures of the clavicle, and the possibility of an underlying pathological condition should be considered whenever a patient with a medial clavicular fracture is encountered.
Anatomy
- clavicle