Clay Shoveler's Fracture

faculty.washington.edu

Clay Shoveler's Fracture

Clay Shoveler's fracture is simply a fracture through a spinous process of a vertebra, like the picture shown above. These fractures are most common in C6 and C7, but can happen in any of the lower vertebra spinous processes. This type of fracture happens because of the excessive hyperflexion of the person's neck/back. Clay Shoveler's fracture was first described in Australian clay miners who attempted to throw a shovel full of clay from the mine floor, but the shovel stuck in the clay causing abrupt hyperflexion of the person. This fractures also occurs in laborers who perform activities including shoveling clay, soil, rubble, or snow (like the picture below) and then throw the contents of the full shovel over the head backwards. This motion allows the shear force of the muscles, the trapezius and rhomboid muscles, to pull on the spine at the base of the neck and tear off the bone on the spine. This type of fracture/injury can also be known as an avulsion injury from flexion injuries.

examiner.com

Symptom's of Clay Shoveler's fracture include a burning pain and "knife-like" pain at the site of fracture. This intense pain will continue as long as repeated activities that include strain on the neck muscles is involved. The pain from the fracture can last up to a few weeks with continuous activity of those muscles. The pain may subside sooner if proper rest is used. Clay Shoveler's fracture can be diagnosed by an x-ray of the spine, either through a diagnostic x-ray, CT or MRI imaging (like the picture demonstrated below). Most patients with this fracture do not need treatment, but pain meds and physcial therapy can help the healing process. There are times where the broken piece of the spinous process may need to be removed if the patient is experiencing long periods of chronic pain at the fracture site.

RiTradiology.com

References:

Definition of fracture, clay shoveler's. (1998). Medicinenet.com. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/forum.asp?articlekey=7988

Clay-shoveler fracture. (2009). Wikipedia.com. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay-shoveler_fracture

Cervical spine fracture image. (2010). Google image. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from faculty.washington.edu

Snow shovelr image. (2010). Google image. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from examiner.com

Diagnostic x-ray image. (2010). Google image. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from RiTradiology.com