How long does it take broken ribs to heal completely

Your ribs protect soft, fragile organs like your heart and lungs. Even though the rib bones are sturdy and are linked together by bands of muscles, it’s possible to break one or more ribs if you’re hit hard in the chest.

Broken ribs are painful and can hurt with every breath. And if they’re broken badly they can seriously damage internal organs.

There are several ways your ribs could be broken:

• A traffic accident
• Getting punched in your rib cage
• Contact sports -- football, hockey, or soccer, for example
• Repeated movements, like swinging a golf club, rowing or swimming
• Coughing very hard again and again
• A fall onto a hard surface
• Getting CPR

Some conditions can lead to a broken rib without your being hit very hard, including:

• Osteoporosis (thin, brittle bones, usually linked to aging)
• Cancerous lesions that weaken bones

How Can I Tell If I Have a Broken Rib?

Sharp chest pain happens with a broken rib. But it’s different from a heart attack:

• If you touch the spot where your rib is broken, it will hurt more.
• Your chest will hurt more when you take a deep breath.
• The pain will get worse if you twist your body.
• Coughing or laughing will cause pain. There may also be bruising, depending on the cause.

How Is It Diagnosed?

Your doctor will give you an exam. They’ll ask you what happened and will touch the painful area. They’ll want to listen to your lungs when you breathe and watch your rib cage as your chest goes up and down.

If your doctor suspects a rib fracture, they will want to get images of your chest. If the broken rib is caused by blunt trauma or a serious accident, they will want to make sure there’s is no other serious damage to internal organs.

Your doctor might order one or more of these:

• X-ray. These catch 75% of all broken ribs. They can also show other problems, like a collapsed lung.
• CT scan. This type of image shows fractures that don’t appear on X-rays. Your doctor will want you to get one if they think the X-ray missed something. It can also show damage to soft tissue and organs, like your lungs, liver, spleen or kidneys.
• MRI. Like a CT scan, these images can show fractures that X-rays miss. They can pinpoint damage to soft tissue and organs.
• Bone scan. If you have a stress fracture to a rib, or a history of prostate cancer, this may do a better job of showing where the damage is.

How Bad Can It Be?

Many times, it’s just a crack or hairline fracture, and the rib doesn’t move out of place. But if more ribs are broken or if the fracture is from a serious injury, more problems are possible.

A broken rib can have a jagged edge that juts into the chest cavity. There’s a chance that it can harm one of your organs:

• If you break a rib toward the top of your rib cage, the sharp end of the bone could tear or puncture an important blood vessel.
• If you break a rib in the middle of your rib cage, the sharp end of bone could puncture a lung.
• If you break a rib toward the bottom of your rib cage, the sharp end of the bone could cause damage to your liver, kidney, or spleen.

What's the Treatment?

Most broken ribs take about 6 weeks to heal. While you’re on the mend:

• Take a break from sports to allow yourself to heal without hurting yourself again.
• Put ice on the area to relieve pain.
• Take pain medicine like acetaminophen or ibuprofen. If you need something stronger, your doctor may prescribe something for you.
• Take deep breaths to avoid pneumonia. A lung infection is the most common thing you can get with rib fractures. Your doctor may give you a simple device to encourage you to breathe deeply.
• Don’t wrap anything tightly around your ribs while they’re healing. You don’t want anything to limit your breathing.

If you have a more serious injury, you may need additional treatment or possibly surgery. For example, if your lung has been punctured by the sharp end of one of your ribs, you may need to have a procedure done to remove air or blood from inside your chest.

Some people whose ribs are badly injured might need to have them repaired with metal plates, but this is rare.

Bruised or broken ribs can be very painful, but usually heal by themselves.

Check if you have a bruised or broken rib

Broken or bruised ribs are usually caused by a fall, a blow to the chest or severe coughing.

Symptoms include:

• strong pain in your chest area, particularly when you breathe in
• swelling or tenderness around the affected ribs
• sometimes bruising on the skin
• feeling or hearing a crack if it's a broken rib

Ribs cannot be easily splinted or supported like other bones, so they're usually left to heal naturally.

There's often no need for an X-ray.

Things you can do yourself

Broken or bruised ribs heal in the same way and usually get better by themselves within 3 to 6 weeks.

There are some things you can do to help ease pain and speed up healing:

Do

• take painkillers, such as paracetamol or ibuprofen – avoid taking ibuprofen for 48 hours after your injury as it may slow down healing

• hold an ice pack (or a bag of frozen peas in a tea towel) to the affected ribs regularly in the first few days to bring down swelling

• rest and take time off work if you need to

• breathe normally and cough when you need to – this helps clear mucus from your lungs to prevent chest infections

• if you need to cough, hold a pillow against your chest

• walk around and sometimes move your shoulders to help you breathe and clear mucus from your lungs

• take 10 slow, deep breaths every hour to help clear your lungs

• try to sleep more upright for the first few nights

Don’t

• do not wrap a bandage tightly around your chest to stop your lungs expanding properly

• do not lie down or stay still for a long time

• do not strain yourself or lift heavy objects

• do not play any sports or do any exercise that makes your pain worse

• do not smoke – stopping smoking may also help your recovery

Urgent advice: Get advice from 111 now if:

• your pain has not improved within a few weeks
• you're coughing up yellow or green mucus
• you have a very high temperature or you feel hot and shivery

You might need stronger painkillers or have a chest infection that needs antibiotics.

111 will tell you what to do. They can arrange a phone call from a nurse or doctor if you need one.

Go to 111.nhs.uk or call 111.

Get an urgent GP appointment

A GP may be able to help you.

Ask your GP practice for an urgent appointment.

Immediate action required: Call 999 or go to A&E if you:

• have an injury caused by a serious accident, such as a car accident
• have shortness of breath that's getting worse
• have chest pain that's getting worse
• have pain in your tummy or shoulder
• are coughing up blood

It could mean a broken rib has damaged something else, like your lung, liver or spleen.