Re: broken tibia & fibula caused foot rotation and shortening of the leg

"adihead" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> i was involved in a motorcycle accident almost 3 months ago. had an
> open fracture right below my left knee. both tibia and fibula broke.
> tibia was pretty messed up, had to be put together with a stanley
> steel rod which was placed down the bone's shaft and about five
> screws, three up near the knee and two down near the ankle (to hold
> the shaft in place. the surgeons decided not to leave the fibula as it
> was. fixing it would involve more cutting and more risk, which wasn't
> worth taking, since it is possible to function perfectly while fibula
> is broken.
> the operation was apperantly successful, but my foot is externally
> rotated about 10 degrees and my left leg has become shorter by a
> little less than half an inch.
> i have 2 questions on my mind:
> 1. is foot rotation a common thing with these sort of insidents? or
> does this sound like the sergeons missed slightly when they where
> putting the pieces back together?
> 2. from looking at the x-rays, i can see that the break in the fibula
> caused on part of the bone to actually overlap the other part, so that
> both parts are located side by side. it seems logical to me that this
> is what caused the shortening of my leg, since the overlapping
> actually makes the fibula shorter, and the measurement of the
> overlapping is the same as the amount my leg has shortened. if so, is
> there any way to fix this shortage? or am i stuck with one shorter leg
> than the other for good?
>
> would be happy to hear if anyone has gone through something similar.
>
> thanks,
> adi omry


Wow !   Reading emails like this make me feel very fortunate. I had an
automobile rollover in 89 that caused a severe open break of tibia and
fibula just above my right ankle. My foot was turned completely backward,
multiple fractures of fibula and some splintering and splitting of tibia.
Also broke my right shoulder (not fixed). I was fortunate to have surgery at
a teaching hospital and fractures were fixed with 2 long screws in tibia and
about 8-9 screws plus rod in fibula. I lost much of the muscle tone in my
foot, but have excellent function other than arthritis and now osteoporosis.
My walking stride is much shorter than before and my R leg may be a bit
shorter. I had constant pain in tibia near ankle until I had the 2 screws
removed and then the ankle pain disappeared. About 4 years after the car
accident a giant cell tumor was discovered in my R proximal tibia and I went
back to the teaching hospital. Had one surgery to remove golf ball sized
tumor and another long surgery to replace missing bone with a large cadaver
allograph. I have 8 huge screws and a large rod in my upper tibia along with
arthritis in my knee joint, but good function other than some sloppiness due
to no ACL. 9 years later I am now having chronic pain in right pelvis
socket. This pain may be caused by arthritis, osteoporosis or avascular
necrosis? I'm going in monday for an evaluation. Any comments?

To adi omry - they shouldn't have left your fibula like that unless you were
about to die from the initial accident. My guess is that you will have
significant function problems if you don't get these problems corrected. I
can tell you from experience that if you are only 3 months post accident
that you are only beginning to realize the differences and problems this
accident might eventually cause you. My advice is to make sure and take your
calcium and vitamin D and see a good surgeon at a teaching hospital for a
second opinion on fixing your leg. The way things are now, you'll have
trouble walking as you get older.