broken rib?

Question

i think i have broken a rib and have been told that nothing can be done even if it is broken . is this true ? . i havent been to the docs as i think it would be a waste of time if they cant do anything.

Answer 1

get to the a&e of your local hosp asap.
you don't know what damage you could do to yourself internally.
and yes there is little that can be done regarding bandaging.

Answer 2

Ouch that hurts!!! I just had heart surgery and they split my chest bone open to get to my heart. I finally have first hand knowledge about pain from broken bones in the chest. I have been telling people for years that their rib fracture will continue to hurt for weeks (about 10 weeks usually) mainly because the ribs are in constant motion as you breath/ They are either expanding or retracting as the breathing process takes place, that means that the fractured ends of the rib bones are also in rather constant motion. This continues as your body is slowly developing a boney callus or "bubble" over the rib fracture site. Eventually this callus will stabilize the fracture and the pain will subside. You may be even able to feel this callus on each rib if your not as overweight as I am. Long after the outside of the bone is healed from this process, then the inside of the bone eventually heals too, and this callus will be absorbed into the boney stucture of the rib. This may take some years however. We used to compress the ribs over a fracture with rib belts, but this prevented deep breathing as it hurts, and may even help surpress coughing or sneezeing which is terribly painful with a rib fracture. When this is done it is only a matter of time where your shallow breathing only leads to lung atelectasis, which means that there are portions of the lung not well areated and consequently it there is a build up of phlem in that area of the lung it is only an invitation to a lung infection. Pneumonia is a deadly complication in many restricted medical scenarios, which can eventually lead to full blown septic pneumonia and even death. Try to keep this in mind and yawn deeply although slowly as you slowly recuperate and return to full function, the more you tolerate the pain and work out your lungs so that you will always come out of this without any fear of the pain of moving and breathing will allow you to survive this ordeal with the least possible problems.

Answer 3

Actually, nothing can be done except for the rib cage being wrapped with an ace bandage to limit the movement. If you do indeed think that you have broken a rib, you should still be assessed by a doctor in the event the rib is broken to a point that would result in a danger of the broken rib puncturing a lung. Do not attempt to wrap your rib cage with an ace without guidance from someone who is knowledgeable in the correct procedure of doing so. You could possibly cause your self harm if you were to wrap it too tightly or incorrrectly.

Answer 4

Unfortunately, you can't do much about broken ribs except control the pain until the fracture heals. Broken ribs are a common injury, usually caused by trauma to the chest. Signs and symptoms include:

* Pain with a deep breath
* Pain with pressing over the area of injury

Pain medications may help relieve discomfort. Doctors typically don't recommend compression wraps for broken ribs unless absolutely necessary for pain. This is because compression wraps can keep you from taking deep breaths, which can increase the risk of lung infections. Broken ribs usually heal completely in about two months.

Answer 5

I've broken ribs a number of times due to chest infections, but have never even bothered to tell the doctors as there's nothing they can do. Take ibuprofen, it's anti inflamatory and so better than aspirin/ paracetomol or tylenol

Answer 6

There is very little treatment done for simple broken ribs. In the old days the chest used to be strapped up but this is no longer done. If the ribs are simply painful and you are not coughing up any blood or finding it hard to breathe then two to three weeks should see any fracture healing nicely. If however you have any worrying symptoms such as these or start to cough up discoloured spit, do get checked out by your GP

Answer 7

Yes this is true,we havent treated farctured ribs for years now.Ribs will heal on there own,just take regular pain relief,and take it easy.But if you notice you are having problems breathing you must go straight up the A/E as you may have a burst lung.Good Luck

Answer 8

yes that's true, sometimes they will give you a support or wrap you to hold it in place to help the pain levels but there is no way to set a rib. You can buy wrap at a drug store and strap yourself or buy one of those back wraps to hold it in place which would help pain.

Answer 9

i heard if you have a broken rib, you just have to stay in bed. nut maybe i'm wrong go to the octor and find out. good luck.

Answer 10

If you have any shortness of breath then you will need a chest x ray to see if you have damaged your lung. If you have then that will need to be sorted out. If your breathing feels ok you could still see a Doctor even if it is just to get some decent pain releif.