UPPER ARM FRACTURE

One fall, and suddenly everything else seems irrelevant! This article explains why a humeral head fracture is one of the most common fractures in Germany and which treatments deliver the best results.

Humeral head fracture - This is why the bone breaks easily at the humeral head.

When we lose our balance and fall to the ground, we reflexively spread our arms forward. Believe it or not, it's true! It's one of our innate reflexes.

Most fractures of the humeral head occur when we try to catch ourselves with our arm at the moment of a fall.

The humeral head is pressed into the shoulder socket and can break.

At the humeral head, a distinction is made between the "anatomical neck" at the transition from the ball to the bone shaft, and the "surgical neck" directly below the ball, the point where the bone often breaks.

In this region, the outer bone layer is thin and prone to fracture.

The bony shoulder socket, on the other hand, is much more stable and therefore breaks less often.

In most humeral fractures, the head falls backward, disrupting the connection between the rotator cuff, which attaches to the head, and the long bone of the arm.

This makes it impossible to actively raise the arm. Movement between the fragments causes them to rub against each other, causing pain.

Fractures of the humeral head are differentiated according to how many pieces it has broken into, since tendons of the rotator cuff attach to the individual pieces.

Another evaluation criterion is the extent of bone displacement.

Is osteoporosis to blame for the humeral head fracture?

Shoulder fractures occur at any age.

However, fractures of the humeral head are a typical injury of older people. The average age for fractures of the humeral head is 67 years, and two-thirds of all cases are women.

It is therefore obvious that a reduction in bone density promotes bone fractures.

However, since humeral head fractures also occur in young patients with very good bone quality, osteoporosis is not the sole cause of humeral fractures. Rather, it is the unfortunate moment of a fall, in which different bones can fracture depending on the force applied to the body.