Practice News
The story of a broken dog...Friday 11th July, 2008
This story starts about two years ago. Bruno was a large (57kg) friendly Rottweiler. Essentially a farm dog Bruno runs back and forward as he pleases. On the 19th of November 2006 it pleased Bruno to launch himself out in front of his owners car. Damage to car unknown, damage to Bruno: comminuted fracture of left Femur. English translation: Thigh bone broken into three pieces. Bruno arrived at our hospital on a Saturday where x-rays were taken and pain relieving drugs administered. I saw Bruno on the Monday Morning. His leg was swollen and floppy and he was unable to touch it the ground.
Surgery: Have you been to fracture clininc or watched the tv and seen what looks like scaffolding around a persons leg, with metal pins going in through the skin. This is what is called an external skeletal fixator and it is how I chose to fix Bruno’s leg. A long metal pin was inserted down to centre of the broken bone and as series of metal bins drilled through the skin and into the broken pieces of bone. These pins were then joined together outside the leg by connecting bars (the visible scaffoldiong) . All in all it looks and is a bit mechanical but it keeps the fracture stable and therefore permits healing of the bone. 12 weeks later all metal work was removed and the leg was essentially as good as new. End of Story...... not quite.
Lets move forward 10 months. See Bruno playing in the yard. See owner driving a shiny blue car. Screechh!! S ee Bruno holding his other back leg up! You’ve guessed it: history had repeated itself. Well not quite. X-rays revealed that this time Bruno had broken is right tibia and fibula: shin bones. Once again the fracture was fixed using an external skeletal fixator. All looked good until X-rays were taken 6 weeks after surgery when it was revealed that a large piece of broken bone had died inside and the body through normal processes of healing had removed the dead segment. The bone otherwise continue to heal and at 12 weeks we started to remove pins that were stabilising the leg. By 16 weeks all pins were out and Bruno was using his leg: by 18 weeks he was back in the hospital. His weakened bone had re-broken.
It was half term: I was on holiday: well, looking after the children (spending quality time with..) , not lying on a beach in the Bahamas (this is what now passes for holiday). I felt very sorry for Bruno. I had got to know him pretty well: both inside and out. So it was that I came in to operate for one last time. The surgery this time involved removing an inch of dead/abnormal bone from each side of the fracture site (this is called an oseotomy) A large metal plate (bar of metal) was then bent to match the curve of his bone and screwed in place using long strong metal screws.
His leg was in a bad way. He was not using it post surgery and it had been decided that a life on three legs for a massive Rotti was not not to be....
I saw him back 10 days later: He was happy, his leg was 2 inches shorter and he was starting to think about using it. It is now over 6 weeks since the surgery: his leg is not perfect: it never will be, but he is learning to use it again and he is pain free.
Orthopaedics can be complicated and at times disheartening for all, but can be also bring great rewards. I wish Bruno well and hope he has spent his time in the hospital learning his ‘Green Cross Code’
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