Adam Dobbinson

Injury HistoryThis injury happened on the 1st of Febuary 2009 at the Midland Area Under 20’s Judo tournament. After the injury occured I was taken to the A & E where I had an x-ray on my shoulder, but was told just to rest it for two-three weeks. After a week I rested the the shoulder, refraning from injuring myself futher and after that week I was called back to the fracture clinic on the 7 th where I was given a second x-ray. The red line indicates the result of this and I was given a ultimatim by the consultant.

The first was intitally do nothing with the injury and carry on the way I was, getting back to training but unltimatly left with a permanent lump on my shoulder from the bone. I was informed that if I did this there was a chance that I would never get back the full range of movement in my left arm, which would ultimately affect my judo abiility on the one side of my body. The second choice was to have a procedure that would bring the clavicle back together in line, this procedure is new among operations but I was given how it would work in full detail. The procedure would only last an hour in which I would be under general anastetic and I could leave the same day. There was a 8/10 chance that I would gain my full range of movement, however this would mean that I would have to let it heal for longer. I agreed to this and he also informed me that in order to make the operation more succcessful they would have to perform quickly and I went into hospital on the 12 th Febuary and under anestetic around 10:35am to 1:15pm. I wans’t however discharged until the next day in which I was told to wear a sling for three weeks.

Adam Dobbinson

This picture shows the end result of the operation, the consultant said that it was a success in that there were no complications in the procedure. If you compare with the before picture then you will notice that clavicle and part of the scapula that is connected to make the ball and socket joint were futher apart causing a gap in the joint but the surgery brought the bones together and the joint. The surgery itself involved the surgen to drill through the bone and place a ‘screw’ through it and and another one in another place behind the bone and the band would hold these together. The green lines is there to show the distance between the two screws on the x-ray.

Despite the operation being a success it did leave some factors in sacrifice. I was to keep it in a sling for three weeks because for this period the band was very delilcate and anything could cause it to come out of place and set the bones back to the ‘before picture’. I’ve also been told, when the three weeks ended to not do judo for another six weeks. I must now attend physio-therapy until then where I only have to be passive i.e. this means that I will not do anything, just leave the pyshio to do the movement as I need to build back the remaining base muscle as the operation caused my muscle mass to decrease. Another piece of interesting information I was given was that when they did the operation thay saw a tear in my bicep that is call a ‘slap’ in medical terms and they had a choice to either operate on one or the other, but shoulder itself was the prority. They did say that they will come back to this bicep situation in six weeks as well. So all in all I will miss 3 months at the most of training because of this dislocation but despite this loss I dont regret the disicion as I believe that it was the best desicion for my welfare and I didnt have any pressure into this descion. I will have to wait until the 20th April until I get the all clear as it would of been nearly three months after the operation.