When a patient incurs a serious injury involving multiple bone fractures, doctors frequently install pins and metal framework into the body. The process of inserting such pins and their eventual extraction requires surgery, significant healing time, and painful recovery. While the metalwork helps the body heal from injuries that would otherwise be crippling, the process can still be challenging to get through.
Definition
Pins and related medical metalwork fall into the category of implants. The pins help the injured body hold the fractured or broken bones together long enough that they heal and solidify again. Without such equipment, the bones would heal crooked or deformed, with serious long-term ramifications. Pins that go into the body frequently incorporate stainless steel or titanium to prevent internal infection.
Bone Surgery
Pins get inserted into the body through surgery. The equipment generally does not get put together in any kind of out-patient process. Reserved mainly for compound fractures or cases where the bones are clearly weak and ready to collapse, pins create stable framework for the body to rely on in the meantime. Surgery frequently involves a combination of equipment, so pins are not the only parts attached to the body. Plates, screws, and pins get connected to each other and the affected bone, sometimes going through the skin temporarily.
Level of Application
The use of pins only occurs when a surgical doctor versed in bone healing agrees they are necessary. In simple bone breaks, most people get a plaster cast, which provides simple enough immobility until the bone heals. Pins get used where there is a bone gap from an injury, the bone is shattered and needs to be held together, or it needs extra strength to avoid shattering again.
Infection Risk
In small percentage of patients the body cannot accept the presence of the pins internally. Even though they are made of surgical metal, an infection still starts to grow as the body rejects the equipment. Typical signs of the infection includes fever, pus and drainage from the pin insertion sites, and swelling and redness at the injury location. Doctors then have to decide whether to remove the pins, reinsert them or try a different method of bone healing altogether.
Removal
In many cases, the medical pins eventually get removed. This process can be temporarily painful, but then the body heals up quickly. Typically treated in an out-patient procedure, a doctor performs the removal with the assistance of a nurse. However, removal doesn’t always mean a bone injury has healed completely. Some patients note continuing pain and less-than-full recovery, depending on the extent of injury and bone damage. Afterwards, a patient may get assigned to weeks or months of physical therapy to ensure proper strength-building and motor function repair.
Sources:
Medline Plus: Bone Fracture Repair http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002966.htm
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital: Elbow Fracture Care: December 2010
http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/info/orthopaedics/home/elbow-fracture.htm
University of Maryland Medical Center: Bone Fracture Repair – Overview: July 2008 http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/002966.htm
Fractures of the Wrist: Treatment for Fractures of the Wrist: G.J. Packer: 2002 http://www.wristfracture.co.uk/treatments.htm
Mayo Clinic: Broken Leg – Treatment and Drugs http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/broken-leg/DS00978/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs