Multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine

Typically, a clay shoveler's fracture is a stress-type avulsion fracture involving the spinous processes of the lower cervical or upper thoracic vertebrae. Even though C7 and T1 are the most commonly involved spinal levels, these avulsion fractures can occur at any lower cervical or upper thora...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hoong, Wilbur Teng Jun, Kaliya-Perumal, Arun-Kumar
Other Authors: Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165217
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-165217
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1652172023-03-26T15:41:44Z Multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine Hoong, Wilbur Teng Jun Kaliya-Perumal, Arun-Kumar Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) Science::Medicine Conservative Treatment Fractures Typically, a clay shoveler's fracture is a stress-type avulsion fracture involving the spinous processes of the lower cervical or upper thoracic vertebrae. Even though C7 and T1 are the most commonly involved spinal levels, these avulsion fractures can occur at any lower cervical or upper thoracic level, either as solitary or multiple fractures. This fracture used to be common in workers who shovel heavy loads of clay for long periods, hence its name. It does not cause any structural, functional, or neurological impairments and is therefore considered a stable fracture. Management is mostly conservative, involving rest, analgesics, and activity modification for a period of 4-6 weeks. Here, we present a 35-year-old male who sustained a motor vehicle accident. Except for midline tenderness in the back, there were no other positive findings. Plain radiographs showed a T11 vertebral compression fracture and absent or deviated spinous process shadows for most of the upper thoracic vertebrae. Computed tomography (CT) imaging clearly revealed multiple spinous process fractures extending from T2 to T8 levels. Considering the stability of these fractures, the patient was managed conservatively with rest, bracing, and analgesics. The recovery was quick, and he was back to his full functional status by six weeks. Published version 2023-03-20T07:41:00Z 2023-03-20T07:41:00Z 2022 Journal Article Hoong, W. T. J. & Kaliya-Perumal, A. (2022). Multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine. Diagnostics, 12(9), 2190-. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics12092190 2075-4418 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165217 10.3390/diagnostics12092190 36140592 2-s2.0-85138667307 9 12 2190 en Diagnostics © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Science::Medicine
Conservative Treatment
Fractures
spellingShingle Science::Medicine
Conservative Treatment
Fractures
Hoong, Wilbur Teng Jun
Kaliya-Perumal, Arun-Kumar
Multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine
description Typically, a clay shoveler's fracture is a stress-type avulsion fracture involving the spinous processes of the lower cervical or upper thoracic vertebrae. Even though C7 and T1 are the most commonly involved spinal levels, these avulsion fractures can occur at any lower cervical or upper thoracic level, either as solitary or multiple fractures. This fracture used to be common in workers who shovel heavy loads of clay for long periods, hence its name. It does not cause any structural, functional, or neurological impairments and is therefore considered a stable fracture. Management is mostly conservative, involving rest, analgesics, and activity modification for a period of 4-6 weeks. Here, we present a 35-year-old male who sustained a motor vehicle accident. Except for midline tenderness in the back, there were no other positive findings. Plain radiographs showed a T11 vertebral compression fracture and absent or deviated spinous process shadows for most of the upper thoracic vertebrae. Computed tomography (CT) imaging clearly revealed multiple spinous process fractures extending from T2 to T8 levels. Considering the stability of these fractures, the patient was managed conservatively with rest, bracing, and analgesics. The recovery was quick, and he was back to his full functional status by six weeks.
author2 Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine)
author_facet Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine)
Hoong, Wilbur Teng Jun
Kaliya-Perumal, Arun-Kumar
format Article
author Hoong, Wilbur Teng Jun
Kaliya-Perumal, Arun-Kumar
author_sort Hoong, Wilbur Teng Jun
title Multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine
title_short Multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine
title_full Multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine
title_fullStr Multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine
title_full_unstemmed Multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine
title_sort multiple clay shoveler's fractures of the thoracic spine
publishDate 2023
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165217
_version_ 1761781164643713024