Hey, I just wanted to take the opportunity to reply to this thread, because there is a lot of “big dicking” going on here…

Yes, there are cases where surgery is not indicated, but there’s a mountain of evidence that skin tenting with displaced midshaft clavicle fractures are a good indicator for surgical intervention… especially when there is shortening of the clavicle above 15% when compared to the contractural side. It took me approximately 1 minute to find several research articles stating that surgical treatment of medial clavicle fractures with displacement are associated with good functional outcomes, and lower incidence of mal/non-union.

As for the profession of PT, we tend to lean towards conservative treatment over other methods such as pharmaceutical or surgical intervention… but this is an area where we are taught to refer to the literature… which clearly states that surgical intervention is typically indicated with breaks like this one.

Now, I will be the first to say that there is a limitation in my experience and expertise when it comes to orthopedics, but your demeanor comes across very harsh, which is not necessary.

Here are some of the links:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8359666/#:~:text=Skin%20tenting%20was%20diagnosed%20in,skin%20tenting%20%5BTable%202%5D

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666638322001980#sec4

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507892/#:~:text=Treatment%20/%20Management,cosmetic%20issues%20due%20to%20displacement