Arm refuses to go straight after radial head fracture

Little over a year out from a pretty nasty radial head fracture, was a little on the fence but doctors recommended going the no surgery route (which I’m kinda regretting now). After many months of multiple pt sessions a week as well as working on it every day myself it still sounds like a cement mixer when I rotate my wrist or bend arm and my arm is a long ways from going straight. Has anyone found any sort of successful PT/mobility exercises/treatment that helped them? I’ve tried flossing with compression bands, regular theragun (converted jigsaw in my case) and rolling out with a ball, heat, band distraction holding my hand on the ground and having the band try to straighten it out as well as stretching by myself and or PT. I couldn’t care less about the sound or pain but not being able to straighten my arm has destroyed the left side of my upper body so getting it straight again is the main priority.

Forgot to mention also tried dry needling as well

If the tightness is muscular binding you might want to try rolfing.

You could try a Dyansplint to gradually force it straight but, honestly, if over a year out you're struggling, it's likely worth seeing an experienced hand surgeon who treats a lot of elbows (not all hand surgeons do). You may need an operative capsular resection and, based on what the radial head looks like, possibly something to address that if there's a bony block to rotation (the latter may be less likely if they chose non-op).

Have you gone back to the doctor and said "hey look, this PT thing isn't working"?

This one is not for the internet. See your doctor. If she has no answers see another one.

Thanks for the help everyone, I’ve been told that what I’m having is unfortunately pretty typical for a radial head break but I should go in to have things checked out again

I can’t offer much help, but I can add that I also chose to forego surgery. This was a fairly large crack, and I was on the fence about needing hardware.

At the 6 month mark, I was back in the gym, and by a year my arm was 99% functional and nearly as straight. 1.5 years out, I don’t notice any pain and can do pull-ups and pushups all day long.

I straightened my arm with weights and massaged the scar tissue every day.

If your bone is healed and not physically blocking the joint, you should be able to regain the majority of your strength and flexibility.


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