Broken bones and implants
Discussion
Hi all,
approx 7 years ago I was in a contextually humorous accident whilst walking a then-girlfriend's dogs. Rolled 10ft down a hill, landed on my right forearm. Broke the radius, dislocated the ulna. Picture the scene from Harry Potter where Malfoy casts the spell on the dude's arm and it looks like a slug. In classic pain tolerance form, I thought I 'sprained my arm' until then-girlfriend urged me to take my jacket off - where I then apparently went as white as a sheet and passed out.
The result was I now have a 6 inch long titanium plate held in with surgical nails.
Usually the wrist gives me the most grief where the ulna connects, as an MRI revealed a small fragment of bone in the joint. The consultant at the time said microsurgery correction was possible, but would likely result in complications of some sort.
Very occasionally though, say once every few months, I have the most unbearable pain in my right forearm from where the implant lives. Ice will not relieve the pain. Naturally this has quite a severe impact on work as typing is a pretty reasonable requirement of my job.
I know I should be in touch with my GP to talk about it and fully intend on opening the line of conversation if it doesn't feel like it's letting off in a couple of days. Curious to know if any other PHers have had similar experiences, and what your stories are? Any tips/tricks to reduce pain of implants etc?
approx 7 years ago I was in a contextually humorous accident whilst walking a then-girlfriend's dogs. Rolled 10ft down a hill, landed on my right forearm. Broke the radius, dislocated the ulna. Picture the scene from Harry Potter where Malfoy casts the spell on the dude's arm and it looks like a slug. In classic pain tolerance form, I thought I 'sprained my arm' until then-girlfriend urged me to take my jacket off - where I then apparently went as white as a sheet and passed out.
The result was I now have a 6 inch long titanium plate held in with surgical nails.
Usually the wrist gives me the most grief where the ulna connects, as an MRI revealed a small fragment of bone in the joint. The consultant at the time said microsurgery correction was possible, but would likely result in complications of some sort.
Very occasionally though, say once every few months, I have the most unbearable pain in my right forearm from where the implant lives. Ice will not relieve the pain. Naturally this has quite a severe impact on work as typing is a pretty reasonable requirement of my job.
I know I should be in touch with my GP to talk about it and fully intend on opening the line of conversation if it doesn't feel like it's letting off in a couple of days. Curious to know if any other PHers have had similar experiences, and what your stories are? Any tips/tricks to reduce pain of implants etc?
We have a friend who has had a knee replacement in his 40’s. Was never right for years and years, agony. Changed the material of the knee and was right as rain. Doc said it was his body not liking the original material. Worth a conversation with the doc?
If hot or cold doesn’t help is it not normally a fundamental issue that needs correcting?
If hot or cold doesn’t help is it not normally a fundamental issue that needs correcting?
Further surgery will be possible, which comes will all the usual downsides of surgery plus the added downsides that come with trying to correct something that has already been operated on. If you are only getting the pain a couple of times a year I think I would probably try to bare with it. If you want to consider surgery again you need to go back to orthopaedics.
Carlososos said:
We have a friend who has had a knee replacement in his 40’s. Was never right for years and years, agony. Changed the material of the knee and was right as rain. Doc said it was his body not liking the original material. Worth a conversation with the doc?
If hot or cold doesn’t help is it not normally a fundamental issue that needs correcting?
It's usually not the metal that's the problem, it's malposition, cured by re-doing the implantation. If hot or cold doesn’t help is it not normally a fundamental issue that needs correcting?
Ref: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24910214/
and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26869063/
The current advice is that in patients with a pre-existing contact allergy (skin contact) then patch testing could help you pick a different knee replacement. But you might be swapping a brand that has 2-3million cases implanted over 20 years for a brand that is relatively less proven.
Skin contact allergy is very different to implanted foreign object reactions.
Edited by The_Doc on Tuesday 8th June 15:25
JapanRed said:
Further surgery will be possible, which comes will all the usual downsides of surgery plus the added downsides that come with trying to correct something that has already been operated on. If you are only getting the pain a couple of times a year I think I would probably try to bare with it. If you want to consider surgery again you need to go back to orthopaedics.
Yes, talk to a surgeon.Titanium alloy allergy is very rare. The body just walls-off the implant and they look they same 10-20 years later if yuo take them out.
Sub-acute infection with coagulase negative staph aureus is much more common, and a clinical problem found after removal.
The_Doc said:
Yes, talk to a surgeon.
Titanium alloy allergy is very rare. The body just walls-off the implant and they look they same 10-20 years later if yuo take them out.
Sub-acute infection with coagulase negative staph aureus is much more common, and a clinical problem found after removal.
Please pardon my ignorance as I'm not medically minded (and thank you for your insight too!) - when you say they look the same, you mean to say the body makes no attempt to heal the holes in the bone once said implant is removed? Titanium alloy allergy is very rare. The body just walls-off the implant and they look they same 10-20 years later if yuo take them out.
Sub-acute infection with coagulase negative staph aureus is much more common, and a clinical problem found after removal.
geordiepingu said:
Any tips/tricks to reduce pain of implants etc?
Not exactly the answer you want but I had the plate removed! I gained an extra elbow at 15 crashing my mtb, both bones in right forearm plated. Outer bone had no muscle/fat covering it which makes sense, but it also left it really susceptible to knocks, cold weather and the whim of the gods so after a few years and x-rays they removed it but couldn't get to the inside one due to muscles and veins n stuff.
Much better now.
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