Can my son speed up recovery from a broken wrist?

Breaks around joints or in areas where multiple bones press against each other can be more complicated as we need to avoid any roughness of the surfaces where the bones meet.

My teenage son broke his wrist during hurling practice last month. He must wear a plaster cast for at least another two weeks. He’s keen to return to the pitch as soon as possible because he’s part of a team. What can he do to speed up the recovery process?

It can be incredibly frustrating to be out of action due to injury and, when younger, the prospect of waiting weeks or even months can be particularly challenging.

When we break a bone, the results can vary from a small crack with both ends of the break lining up nicely to large cracks and fragments out of alignment. The goal of treatment is to realign the bones as much as possible, giving them the best chance of healing and returning to their original size, shape, and position. 

Breaks around joints or in areas where multiple bones press against each other can be more complicated as we need to avoid any roughness of the surfaces where the bones meet.

People often think that a fracture or a break is different but, in medicine, we use the terms interchangeably.

A fractured bone will heal in several stages. In the first two weeks, there is significant inflammation. This is when the area is at its most painful and swollen. During this time, a meshwork of blood and immune cells clears out the damaged tissue and forms the scaffolding for the new bone to grow back.

The healing process then progresses to what is known as callus formation, during which a soft, almost rubbery tissue forms around the fracture site. 

This development, which takes between two and four weeks, marks the beginning of the reparative phase, during which the body starts to rebuild its bone structure.

When this callus forms, the pain will usually subside and you may think the wound has healed, but this area of new tissue won’t stand up to compression, pulling, or impact in the same way normal bone does. For this reason, most bone injuries are protected for six weeks and then reviewed.

You could argue that the bone may be fully repaired after four weeks, but the only way to tell this would be to take another X-ray. However, X-rays expose people to radiation and, although the dose is small, we only use them when necessary. For this reason, we usually don’t rescan until six weeks have passed, as most injuries will have healed, and those that haven’t may require a different treatment.

Essentially, this means that there isn’t a shortcut for your son. He should continue with whatever exercise he can to maintain his fitness levels so he can return to playing quickly once the cast comes off.

It is essential that he maintains a healthy diet and uses pain relief only as needed during the healing process.

This multi-faceted approach will give his bone the best chance at healing.

• If you have a question for Dr Phil Kieran, please send it to [e-mail]