Walking Stairs Lifting Heavy Boxes. Had Pain. How Would This Cause A Bone Bruise Or Fracture?

Posted on Tue, 6 Aug 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 6 Aug 2013 Answered on

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I had an mri that said I either have a bone bruise or fracture of my shoulder. I was carrying a heavy box up a set of stairs, actually several that day. I had a bad pain in my shoulder and it gave out. could you explain how I would have caused a bone bruise or fracture from that?

Answered by Dr. Saurabh Gupta (5 hours later)

Hi,

Thanks for your query.

There are two possibilities of developing bone bruise or fracture by carrying heavy load up several times-
1)You may not recall having a specific injury
2)Due to repetition of activity, overuse injuries occur which places too much stress over shoulder bone and joint beside other tissue(muscle, ligament, tendon) causing bone bruise or fracture.This can occur easily if your bones are weak due to osteoporosis.

Hope the information was helpful, if you have any further queries I am happy to answer, if no kindly close the query.

Regards,

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T

Follow up: Dr. Saurabh Gupta (24 hours later)

What would be the best treatment for this problem? How long does it take to recover from this? Are there any lasting complications?

Answered by Dr. Saurabh Gupta (8 hours later)

Hi,

Best treatment for this problem is to give rest to the shoulder for 2 weeks. After that physiotherapy of shoulder to strengthen the muscle around.

Avoid overhead activity and lifting heavy weight.

It will take 2-3 weeks to recover from this injury. If proper rest is not given and repetitive stress to shoulder continued, it will hamper the healing process and may give rise to instability to shoulder joint.

Hope this helps you and wishing you for speedy recovery.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Shanthi.E