Femur Non Union

[astroguy]

Originally Posted by Bigger Al

I had a stainless rod in my right femur for 19 years. It was the result of a broadside hit from a car. I had no issues at all, and had the rod removed to make way for a new hip. Took 88 swings of a 3-lb. surgial slide hammer to get it out, too.
Good luck!!

Well that rod on the back of the bike would be a fantastic conversation starter! Plus I'm sure that you feel a rather closer relationship to it as compared to the rest of your tool set : )
Regarding the 88 swings.....I used to work in radiology in hospitals many years ago and we'd often be called in to the OR for many ortho procedures.....and I can tell you you'd be shocked at how much your body and leg were being abused to get that beast out. I was always amazed at how well people just heal right up afterwards considering the surgical procedure. Bones do require tools like 'slide hammers'.

As far as the man with non union femur, even bone grafts can be employed. Hoping you some better luck.

[Bigger Al]

Originally Posted by astroguy

Well that rod on the back of the bike would be a fantastic conversation starter! Plus I'm sure that you feel a rather closer relationship to it as compared to the rest of your tool set : )
Regarding the 88 swings.....I used to work in radiology in hospitals many years ago and we'd often be called in to the OR for many ortho procedures.....and I can tell you you'd be shocked at how much your body and leg were being abused to get that beast out. I was always amazed at how well people just heal right up afterwards considering the surgical procedure. Bones do require tools like 'slide hammers'.

As far as the man with non union femur, even bone grafts can be employed. Hoping you some better luck.

I had no idea how they were planning to remove the thing before surgery. I'd been told that large-scale ortho work had more in common with carpentry than medicine, but didn't really believe it until afterwards. My wife noticed some really strange bruising on my right thigh a few days post-procedure. She commented that it almost looked like hand prints. Turns out it was where the other surgeon was holding onto me while the slide hammer was being used.


The rod is a good conversation starter.

[gman350]

Originally Posted by gatling

Anybody in here have any experience with femur non unions? I crashed a little over 3 years ago and broke my femur in two places. They put on a plate. Top fracture healed; bottom one did not. After about a year the plate broke. I had a second surgery in which they removed the plate and used a rod. You can guess where this story is going. It, too, recently broke. I go back to the doc tomorrow to find out what the game plan is for Round 3. Just wondering if anyone here has also gone through this and what you found. Thanks in advance.

Fire your doctor.

I've broken my left leg 2 different times & both times the doctor I was originally seeing was not worth a damn.

ER docs don't seem to be worth much either, they just want to patch you up enough to get rid of you, not fix you where you can walk again.

Go find a good sports ortho that is used to fixing athletes that want to get well & return to sports.

Wow, can't imagine how you broke the rod. The rod I have from the first break held up just fine for the 2nd break, pretty violent mc wreck, broke below the rod.

[P B G]

That sucks.
I spiral fractured my right femur, 2 IM rods, inserted supracondularly.
Had them in for just over a year and had them removed - slide hammer I am told.

Where is the fracture site?

[P B G]

Originally Posted by 74C5

Being of critical mind, I'll ask, are you too active on it?

I'm fairly certain that his the hardware is not engineered based on the assumption that the bone was not healing.

[sandsman]

Originally Posted by Petzl

I had 12 full thickness fractures in the tib and one in the fib, also one in the scalphoid. Non unions in the scalphoid and tibia. 6 months in a wheelchair etc... they finally did electrical bone growth stimulation. Seemed to work for me.

I went thru a whole year of surgeries due to a fibula non union fracture about 2 inches above the ankle. I also had bone grafting done too. The doctor ordered a bone stimulator and I used it 2 times a day, for about 4 months......fantastic results, unit was about $5,000, but workers comp paid for it all, I have a $300,000 lower left leg.

This is how th first doctor screwed up my leg.


He told me it was 90 to 95% healed and never showed me a xray. I came unglued when I found out how he screwed me up.
I had gotten to the point I was wanting it amputated, 2nd doctor fixed the mess, took all of 2011, cost my carreer as a aircraft mechanic since now I have major nerve damage and that is mostly the problem,

This is it fixed.

[Dr. Greg]

Having broken my left femur, that's not fun. Sorry to hear about yours.

Anyway, re "non-unions," I broke my left humerus (M/C crash) a few years back; it was plated and I was told "no heavy lifting." Well, it didn't hurt too much so I started riding my pushbike a little too soon, as it turned out.

Started hurting like hell: two screws had come out and were floating around in there. They had to replate it; this time I took a little more care. It healed the second time around.

--Doc

[godwinmt]

I shattered about 2.5 inches of my left tibia when a pickup truck broadsided me as he turned into the side of me heading into a yard......My orthopedic surgeon ended up removing the shattered bone and installing an IM nail down the center of my tibia with 3 screws up top and 2 in the bottom to keep everything aligned. At the time of the fracture, he replaced the removed bone with antibiotic packed bone cement which stayed in the joint for about 8 weeks while I was on crutches before I could get in for a bone graft.


Because of the huge amount of bone that was missing, we opted to not remove bone from my pelvis to replace it, and instead decided to use cadavar bone mixed with Infuse (yeah the spinal lawsuit stuff ) to replace what bone was missing. The amount the bone has grown with it has been truly amazing. Here's an x ray ~6 weeks after the graft:




I had the graft back at the beginning of November, and was still on crutches through the first week or so of the year. I started walking with a cane ~2 weeks ago, and at the moment, should be able to get around full time for the most part without it by the end of the week. Infuse is epic stuff, and although it's technically off label, you may ask your ortho about it as a stimulant to get the bone growing again. My fracture was an interesting use of it, but the fact that the bone doesn't want to grow back is what it was designed for in your case. It'd definitely be worth checking out.

-M

[Ruffus]

I had a femur non union after 4 failed surgeries I went to a different surgeon outside my region. He cut off 18 mm for a fresh bone on bone start. Used an adhesive called Cryptonite (sp?) & in his own word's (magic pixie dust) to promote bone growth & healing. Plate snapped in two after 4th surgery & being cleared to return back to work, I was walking around with the only thing holding my leg together was muscle & gristle. When the same doc who fucked up the first 4 said let's get you in for surgery #5, First thing I did was look for a better doctor. Had to use crutches & a zimmer splint until I found one. Didn't know the plate broke until after I saw the new surgeon & had xray's taken again. Felt sick to my stomach just seeing the Xray & thinking that I was walking around (in great pain & at work when the plate snapped) I hobbled out of work in a foot of snow, dragged myself into my Jeep using the cage & could barely keep pressure on the gas peddle by the time I got 1\2 way home. Called my wife to have my crutch's ready & bring them out. Doubted I'd make it into the house without them.

[sandsman]

My 2nd dr used all kinds of stuff on my non union fracture. He used stem cells from my bone and other places that I don't even remember, mixed it with some magic bone putty and packed it in and around the break, then used an ultrasonic bone stimulator 2X a day for about 4 months.......now about 2 years out from this, other than alot of nerve damage....i'm pretty good.

[burmbuster]

My oldest son has suffered the same. Bone would not mend. It has to do with blood flow. They ended up taking bone chips from his hip and packed them into the fracture. It then healed properly. He had the same thing happen. plates with screws the first time then he broke it again. The rod did the trick. Both breaks were MX related. It must not be too bent because you are not an amputee. I have heard from our Ortho that if it bends too bad they can't get it out. You could lose the leg if it affects blood flow.

[mitch]

Get Wikipeda to search for IIizarov apparatus, it worked well for me . Thinking about it, it may not work on a femur, mine was lower leg, still it may be worth talking to an Ortho about it. Good luck.