Does broken bones heal individually?
Patient: I had my 3rd and 4th metatarsal broken in the center of the bone and had to have surgery. Number 4 healed fine, but the 3rd is not healing. The doctor after 7 weeks said I could start to walk without my boot/cast around the house to help with keeping the range of motion ok. I returned again at 9 weeks and he say s the bracket is all twisted, the screws are coming out, and the bone is not healing. He wants to do surgery again, or wear the boot for 3 more weeks with no weight bearing at all. Is this normal since one bone healed fine and the other one didn t? Could it have been that when they put the bracket on #3 bone they didn t have the bone close enough to promote healing of bone between the break? Thank you, Chris Doctor: hi,thank-you for providing the brief history of you.As per your history I agree with the surgeon, that the healing has not occurred and might require another surgery. This is the commonest thing which occurs in foot injuries. Also, the bone healing is totally individual physiology induced, so a surgeon will not be able to do much except to regain the alignment of the bone by which there will be a normal physiological healing. If the healing doesn't occur there might be a need bone graft by which healing occurs.Regards Jay Indravadan Patel