What can you do to help heal a broken rib?
Jun 16, 2021 · Most individuals that are healing from broken ribs don’t need surgery or a hospital stay. They can heal at home, unless they have other injuries. It takes 6 weeks or more for rib fractures to heal. Treating your pain as needed, staying active, …
How long does it take a broken rib to heal?
Jul 25, 2016 · Treating Your Broken Ribs at Home. Taking ibuprofen or paracetamol pain relievers regularly. Using an ice pack to reduce the pain and swelling around your chest. Resting when needed, which means taking time off work if your job involves physical labor. Staying mobile when not resting, which can help ...
Why are my broken ribs taking so long to heal?
Jan 28, 2019 · Here’s a quick breathing exercise to add to your recovery plan: Start with three seconds of deep breathing. Switch to three seconds of relaxed breathing. Do a few “huffs” or short breaths with some light coughs. Finish off with another three seconds of relaxed breathing. Repeat this cycle several ...
Does a cracked rib heal on its own?
Rehabilitating a broken rib starts with getting adequate rest and avoiding sports and activities which increases pain in the area, according to Physio Adviser.com. The use of ice packs may help to reduce inflammation in the early stages of the injury. As Your Condition Improves
What helps broken ribs heal faster?
What's the Treatment?Take a break from sports to allow yourself to heal without hurting yourself again.Put ice on the area to relieve pain.Take pain medicine like acetaminophen or ibuprofen. ... Take deep breaths to avoid pneumonia. ... Don't wrap anything tightly around your ribs while they're healing.Dec 18, 2020
How long does it take to recover from a broken rib?
In most cases, broken ribs usually heal on their own in one or two months. Adequate pain control is important so that you can continue to breathe deeply and avoid lung complications, such as pneumonia.Jan 8, 2021
Is walking OK with broken ribs?
Most broken ribs resolve within six weeks. You'll need to take it easy during this time, but you should still be able to walk around and do your daily activities. If you find that the pain isn't getting any better, see a doctor to rule out any additional injuries that could be causing your symptoms.Jan 28, 2019
Will a popped rib heal itself?
Broken or bruised ribs heal in the same way and usually get better by themselves within 3 to 6 weeks.
How do you know if your ribs are broken or cracked?
One of the most persistent symptoms of a broken rib is chest pain when taking a breath. Inhaling deeply hurts even more. Laughing, coughing, or sneezing can also send sharp pains shooting from the site of the break. You may also notice swelling and redness around the break.Apr 20, 2020
Can you lift your arms with a broken rib?
As you heal your broken ribs, you can move into chest stretches that help to work the muscles across your chest. Step 1: Sit upright in a chair and lift your arms, bending your elbows to 90 degrees. Alternately, you can try to raise your arms and interlock your fingers.Nov 10, 2020
Is a heating pad good for broken ribs?
Put ice or a cold pack on the area for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. Put a thin cloth between the ice and your skin. After 2 or 3 days, if your swelling is gone, put a heating pad set on low or a warm cloth on your chest. Some doctors suggest that you go back and forth between hot and cold.
How should you sleep with bruised ribs?
Try to sleep in a comfortable semi-upright position for the first few nights. You can do this by placing a few pillows under your neck and upper back. This position will help you breathe more comfortably. Begin to sleep on your unaffected side after the first few days of injury.Jun 13, 2021
Causes of Broken, Fractured, and Bruised Ribs
Rib injuries are most commonly caused by chest trauma, as a result of motor vehicle accidents, contact sports collisions, or falling. Ribs can also...
How to Tell If Your Ribs Are Broken
If you’ve experienced trauma to your upper torso or chest area, pay attention to the pain you feel when you breathe in. A fractured, broken, or bru...
Treating Your Broken Ribs at Home
In most cases, ribs are excellent at healing themselves. However, during your recovery time, it’s important that you get adequate rest and tend to...
Causes of Broken, Fractured, and Bruised Ribs
Rib injuries are most commonly caused by chest trauma, as a result of motor vehicle accidents, contact sports collisions, or falling. Ribs can also be bruised from severe coughing.
How to Tell If Your Ribs Are Broken
If you’ve experienced trauma to your upper torso or chest area, pay attention to the pain you feel when you breathe in. A fractured, broken, or bruised rib can feel very painful when breathing in, which may result in taking shallow breaths.
Treating Your Broken Ribs at Home
In most cases, ribs are excellent at healing themselves. However, during your recovery time, it’s important that you get adequate rest and tend to the pain to optimize healing. This includes:
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Exercises to Help Broken Ribs Recovery
Exercise for broken ribs recovery is a delicate balance. Your condition is quite painful, so you need to keep exercise gentle and allow for plenty of rest. On the other hand, you need to stay active over the next several weeks to reduce your risks for pneumonia and other chest infections, blood clots, or muscle weakness.
Safety Considerations
Broken ribs don't heal overnight, so it's important to not overexert yourself. While you may feel some pain completing the exercises, you should stop if the pain increases. Contact your doctor immediately if you experience colored or bloody mucus, fever, or shortness of breath.
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.
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.
Clinical trials
Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition.
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.
Prescription medication
Initially, you’ll probably be prescribed prescription pain medication to help you get though the first few days. Common examples include oxycodone (Oxycontin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin).
Over-the-counter (OTC) medication
After you get past the initial pain, you’ll want to start swapping prescription medication for an OTC option. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen (Advil) or naproxen (Aleve), should do the trick.
How is A Broken Rib Treated?
Broken ribs usually occur from trauma to the chest, such as from a fall, motor vehicle accident or impact during contact sports. Most people who suffer a broken rib actually have a cracked rib, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Pain Medication
Doctors typically prescribe over-the-counter pain medication such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen. If the pain is severe, a doctor may prescribe stronger pain medication or suggest injections of long-lasting anesthesia around the nerves that supply the ribs.
Rest, Ice and Avoiding Further Trauma
Rehabilitating a broken rib starts with getting adequate rest and avoiding sports and activities which increases pain in the area, according to Physio Adviser.com. Depending on your job and the severity of the injury, you may need time off work. The use of ice packs may help to reduce inflammation in the early stages of the injury.
As Your Condition Improves
Once you are pain-free, you may gradually return to sports and other activities that were aggravating the broken rib. Additionally, you may perform shoulder blade squeezes, as described by Physio Adviser.com. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as far as possible without pain.
Warnings
Contact a doctor immediately if you develop severe chest pain, fever, chills, shortness of breath, expansive bruising and/or cough up blood.
About This Article
This article was medically reviewed by Jonas DeMuro, MD. Dr. DeMuro is a board certified Pediatric Critical Care Surgeon in New York. He received his MD from Stony Brook University School of Medicine in 1996.
Rib Fracture Healing Time
Rib fractures may take 6 weeks to 6 months to heal. Depending on the health status of the patient, the healing time varies from one patient to another. Factors that affect the healing time include:
Ways to Shorten Your Rib Fracture Healing Time
Although the healing of rib fractures is quite slow, certain therapeutic measures can help enhance healing. During the entire period of recovery, taking enough rest, and avoiding sudden movements that may cause the ribs to displace or break again, are extremely important. Other measures that can help speed up the healing process are listed below.
When to See a Doctor
If you are not sure whether or not you have a rib fracture, consult the doctor at once to confirm the diagnosis. A rib fracture manifests itself as:
Overview
If you’ve ever had a rib fracture—a crack or an actual break in a rib—you know that this type of injury can cause severe pain. A hallmark of a rib fracture is that a deep breath makes the pain worse. Pain from a fractured rib can even impede your breathing, leading to a chest infection.
What are the most common causes of rib fracture?
We humans have 12 pairs of ribs that wrap around the chest. You can fracture one or more ribs in a trauma, such as a car crash, a fall from a height, or a contact-sports mishap. Rib fractures can even result from repetitive movements in sports, such as golf.
Why should you see a doctor about a rib fracture?
Any rib injury should be evaluated by a physician. You will want advice for pain management, as well as to be assessed to see if there has been any other damage.
How is a rib fracture diagnosed?
A doctor can assess the severity of your rib fracture by performing a physical examination and by looking at a chest X-ray. If you have a complex injury, the or she may want to order further testing such as a CT scan to help diagnose any related injuries.
How is a rib fracture treated?
Most people with rib fractures are sent home with advice on taking care of themselves. In most cases, a fractured rib will heal on its own in about six weeks. Doctors no longer prescribe compression wraps for rib fractures, because they can restrict breathing, leading to pneumonia, or even a partial lung collapse.
When is surgery for rib fracture necessary?
Surgery for rib fractures may be recommended only for the most complex cases, including when the injury has made breathing so difficult that a respirator is necessary. Yale Medicine thoracic surgeons are skilled in rib-stabilization surgery, which uses plates and screws to stabilize the ribs so that the patient can breathe properly while healing.
What's distinctive about Yale Medicine's approach to rib fracture?
Yale New Haven Hospital’s Level 1 Trauma Center has trauma surgeons available 24-7 to provide immediate care for patients with rib fractures. We provide continuous care to all trauma patients from admission to discharge.
