Arm wrestling injury

Hi all,

3 days ago I was arm wrestling a dude who was ~20kg (44lb) heavier than me and I was winning, until I heard 3 loud pops and my arm gave out. The next day, I went and got some Xrays done at the hospital but they were unable to treat it all as it was a Sunday.

I tried my curls again a day later and found I had trouble curling 6kg when I normally curl 25kg!

I was wondering if anyone on this forum has ever suffered broken bones from arm wrestling and to share your experiences / recoveries if you have?

The xray showed up like so:

imageshack.us/photo/my-images/263/dsc02110ux.jpg

How long do you guys reckon the recovery is going to be? No more lifting weights for me now :(

When I was doing straight bar curls a few years ago, I had 3 loud pops in my arm...it was a distal bicep tendon tear. Do you have any deformity in your bicep now?

yeh u might have torn ur bicep.. just hope its partial and not completely torn.
i have a partial tear but the full tears are brutal

dre...actually, that's up for debate. A lot of documented cases support that, believe it or not, full tears are faster healing and less pain. But full tears have an obvious deformity in the bicep. Mine was first thought by the doctor to be a full tear. The next visit he felt the tendon and suspected it may be a partial tear, but still not certain. I didn't get an mri because my options were... 1) get surgery which was costly and downtime w work as well as a big scar and longer rehab than letting it heal. 2) Let it heal on its own, may have some deformity(i luckily dont). I'd be back to work and activity much faster. Other than possible deformity, there is a chance that it might become a full tear because it might not be as strong as it naturally is or not as strong as if I had it repaired. I've never had a problem with it since and I went back to straight bar curling up to 155lbs for reps. So again, my advice is to take the time to let it heal and follow the protocol for rehab and the injury will be fine over time. (But don't believe for a second that I wasn't scared to death and depressed at first,lol)

warning:: I'm not a MD.

What was the radiologists/attendings reading for the x-ray? Looks like an avulsion fracture of the medial epicondyle to my amateur eyes.

[url]http://boneandspine.com/muculoskeletal-radiology/xray-of-fracture-of-medial-epicondyle-of-humerus-in-14-years-old-girl/[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medial_epicondyle_of_the_humerus[/url]

"It gives attachment to the ulnar collateral ligament of elbow joint, to the Pronator teres, and to a common tendon of origin (the common flexor tendon) of some of the Flexor muscles of the forearm."

How your wrist flexion? Any bruising?

I don't suppose a comment on the wisdom of arm wrestling is needed :)

[QUOTE=mslman71;711672401]warning:: I'm not a MD.

What was the radiologists/attendings reading for the x-ray? Looks like an avulsion fracture of the medial epicondyle to my amateur eyes.

boneandspine.com/muculoskeletal-radiology/xray-of-fracture-of-medial-epicondyle-of-humerus-in-14-years-old-girl/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medial_epicondyle_of_the_humerus

"It gives attachment to the ulnar collateral ligament of elbow joint, to the Pronator teres, and to a common tendon of origin (the common flexor tendon) of some of the Flexor muscles of the forearm."

How your wrist flexion? Any bruising?

I don't suppose a comment on the wisdom of arm wrestling is needed :)[/QUOTE]

this looks right. I do believe it is an avulsion fracture to the funny bone.
wrist flexion is 100% ROM. i just have limited ROM when I try to extend my arm and flex it the way I used to when I do a bicep pose. Im also getting quite a bit of swelling in the elbow joint area.

I probably wont ever try arm wrestling again :P

[QUOTE=dre101;711613471]yeh u might have torn ur bicep.. just hope its partial and not completely torn.
i have a partial tear but the full tears are brutal[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=FLbeach321;711553661]When I was doing straight bar curls a few years ago, I had 3 loud pops in my arm...it was a distal bicep tendon tear. Do you have any deformity in your bicep now?[/QUOTE]

No, this isnt a bicep injury, its actually a bone injury, my muscles are fine.

[QUOTE=jvlshz;712006681]this looks right. I do believe it is an avulsion fracture to the funny bone.
wrist flexion is 100% ROM. i just have limited ROM when I try to extend my arm and flex it the way I used to when I do a bicep pose. Im also getting quite a bit of swelling in the elbow joint area.
[/QUOTE]

You are going back to the doctor, right? I think there are times they end up having to pin these back. If that is in fact what it is, use of the arm will pull the bone fragment (to which the tendons are attached) away from its site and make it hard to heal. Again, I'm no MD, but it seems very unlikely that the bone would reattach with regular usage (flexing the muscles that ultimately attach to it).

[QUOTE=mslman71;712091321]You are going back to the doctor, right? I think there are times they end up having to pin these back. If that is in fact what it is, use of the arm will pull the bone fragment (to which the tendons are attached) away from its site and make it hard to heal. Again, I'm no MD, but it seems very unlikely that the bone would reattach with regular usage (flexing the muscles that ultimately attach to it).[/QUOTE]

I will be going back next week. It doesn't seem like the bone is moving much under my arm, although I can feel it moving a tiny bit, maybe a few millimetres. It also makes a clicking sound when it moves. Do you think they'll have to pin this back for it to heal?

[QUOTE=jvlshz;712110981]I will be going back next week. It doesn't seem like the bone is moving much under my arm, although I can feel it moving a tiny bit, maybe a few millimetres. It also makes a clicking sound when it moves. Do you think they'll have to pin this back for it to heal?[/QUOTE]

I dunno. I think they make a decision based on whether or not they can reduce it and honestly I'm only taking a shot in the dark as to what the problem is. I would want someone to take a look at it _now_ and get on the road to treatment without a moment wasted.

If it is an avulsion fracture and they don't pin it they will certainly immobilize it for a few weeks. If they do pin it they will still have you immobilize it. The end of that bone is attached to tendon and then muscle so every time the muscle flexes it pulls on the bone and away from where it needs to be to heal. Compared to the other ones I've seen yours doesn't appear to be severely displaced but that's for someone who actually has real knowledge on the subject to decide!! Avulsion fractures are pretty common in the last phalange of the fingers in sports (e.g., jersey finger) and in those cases they have to end up pinning down that little bone fragment.

Here's a good site, although they tend to have the most horrific x-rays as case examples

[url]http://www.wheelessonline.com/ortho/medial_epicondyle_frx_of_the_humerus[/url]

[QUOTE=mslman71;712114271]I dunno. I think they make a decision based on whether or not they can reduce it and honestly I'm only taking a shot in the dark as to what the problem is. I would want someone to take a look at it _now_ and get on the road to treatment without a moment wasted.

If it is an avulsion fracture and they don't pin it they will certainly immobilize it for a few weeks. If they do pin it they will still have you immobilize it. The end of that bone is attached to tendon and then muscle so every time the muscle flexes it pulls on the bone and away from where it needs to be to heal. Compared to the other ones I've seen yours doesn't appear to be severely displaced but that's for someone who actually has real knowledge on the subject to decide!! Avulsion fractures are pretty common in the last phalange of the fingers in sports (e.g., jersey finger) and in those cases they have to end up pinning down that little bone fragment.

Here's a good site, although they tend to have the most horrific x-rays as case examples

wheelessonline.com/ortho/medial_epicondyle_frx_of_the_humerus[/QUOTE]

thanks for the link, it helps a lot. I have an appointment to check it out in a weeks time.