Intramedullary Nailing of the Tibia

An animated description of the placement of an intramedullary nail to address a tibial shaft fracture.

[@sk8coaster42]

Got this done when I was 16.. finally got the screws removed this year, 20 years after the initial surgery, because they were giving me issues, but the nail is still in the bone which shouldn't affect anything from what I've been told

[@nadirabbas6609]

I got it done but knee does not work normally

[@sdmalpas]

I had one of these 20 years ago, thankfully I was only 21 at the time and healed quickly but didn't have enough range of motion. I ended up having it removed and haven't had any problems since, but its not pretty.

[@richardtuba4843]

Maam..was it normal again when the nails are removed?

[@jmanzo2009]

Just had one done last week. That's what I'm worried about. How long did you wait to have it removed?

[@sdmalpas]

@Abominable Love It was a long time ago. You might not have an identical injury to me. But i had the surgery and was in hospital for about twelve days. After that, i was going back for around eight checkups to see how it was healing. After that, they asked me questions, and i told them i was having a problem with limited range of motion because the actual bar was stopping my knee from fully extending. I was given the option to remove it but was told it carried a certain amount of risk. I don't remember how long it was from that date to when i had it removed, but it was literally weeks. I had it done in a day surgery. Still have scars, but I haven't had any adverse effects from it. Please let me know how you get on. My advice is, physio and lots of it. When you get released from hospital, exercise it as much as possible. I took up rock climbing, and it really helped me to stop any muscle wastage problems. Just stay active. Good luck, and let me know how it goes. All the best.👍

[@SlopedOtter]

Almost 3 weeks post op, knee and ankle are still stiff, just starting to put a bit of weight on it. Military ruined my knees in my 20’s BEFORE the surgery so I was doing a lot of exercises to help with them anyway. Hopefully back to my normal self in a few months.

[@rcarrollmassage]

I have one from a spiral fracture in the mid to distal section of the tibia. As long as your stitches are pulled or staples. I rode a recumbent indoor bike for hours to keep muscle tone and flexibility...I was a professional cyclist at the time. I also worked out on the floor for hip flexor strength. A hot bath with ankle flexion and ankle rotation.

[@rcarrollmassage]

PS...I was off for nearly 5 months

[@SlopedOtter]

@@rcarrollmassage Thanks for sharing, I’m getting a bit more range of motion every day. Not quiet on the indoor bike yet but soon. Using hot baths and resistance bands is working miracles. Lots of muscle atrophy as I usually lift weights in the gym daily however

[@elgusaniiiodeljuego6823]

Is the metal rod forever? How an operation like this doesn’t destroy your knee?

[@psfreak333]

Your knee as you might know is just where two bones come together.....so when you bend the knee up it exposes the top surface of the tibia more and you drill a small hole into the hollow cavity (medullary canal) and then insert the rod into the marrow. The knee is largely unaffected unless the rod migrates over time into the knee....which is painful (trust me...happened twice) or if the rod breaks and then the top portion migrates....mine broke over time because there was enough room for it to wiggle and sure enough a few years later without my leg breaking the rod did and moved up. What sucks is in this case they cant retrieve the bottom part of the rod without breaking the leg and starting from scratch.

[@ellios5734]

@@psfreak333 oh my god

[@natemcmillin4615]

5 weeks now. Need crutches. Some weight on it. Little pain unless aggravated and knee hurts.

[@myreenmahaguay-kearney2065]

Hi, how long did it take for you to move the affected leg?

[@bittukumarpaswan3234]

Sir intramedullary nail ko removed nahi kr sakte hai kya mare pair titanium rod laga hua h same esi tarah please reply me sir

[@drsushovanbanerjee941]

Yes it can be removed, but if no problem arises then better not to do any further operation.Further titanium nail is MRI compatible.

[@CORRIGEEN71]

6 months since surgery no pain in knee but a bit stiff how are u now

[@scottyjett6017]

20 1/2 years later I'm ok pained sometimes. Standing and walking long distance is limited.

[@drsushovanbanerjee941]

Continue knee rom exercises, quadriceps and hamsstring strengthening exercises under supervision of a local physiotherapist

[@AmarSingh-wy3jm]

Haddi me se rod plate kitane time bad nikallbana chahiye

[@K_SGAMING02]

Haddi tootne ke baad kitne din ke baad Chalna chahiye

[@akashpanwar]

plaster lgte hi dooddhh pdo

[@drsushovanbanerjee941]

After proper tibial intramedullary nailing you can start full weight bearing with crutches from next day after surgery onwards , provided that the fracture morphology is not much communited.

[@rashid6289]

4 weeks now.

[@vansibot]

I got this done and it hurts

[@thetrain5785]

DA SA ( i have both legs done ) it hurts twice lol

[@vansibot]

@@thetrain5785 after a month it doesnt hurt

[@oscarm.4078]

@@vansibot a month! That's forever Are you walking yet

[@vansibot]

@@oscarm.4078 still have 5 months to fully walk. only partial weight bearing for now

[@milorider9659]

The Train do you walk weird and what happens when you brake it again? I got this done a month and a half ago and can bear partial weight on it already!(I’m also bo legged so)

[@nickdamato8657]

Based on my experience, please do not let anyone do this surgery on you as the risk for chronic anterior knee pain is much too great. Take the option for the plate instead, much less invasive. Do your research, post surgery intramedullary nailing chronic knee pain, there’s plenty of data, just google it. I’ve got both because they went for the nailing but, the tibia break was too low and the guide wire didn’t go through the lower part of the bone. So they had to plate it. It worked thankfully but, my knee has not been the same and it hurts bad at times and especially after a lot of physical exercise which is a total bummer. There’s still a lot of scar tissue and numbness as well, super lame. Cutting through tendons and messing with a super important joint seems like a good idea, right? What could go wrong?! Please always ask what are the drawbacks to any procedure. Benefits/drawbacks. Knee pain sucks especially for an unnecessary surgery. Maybe it’s been pushed by a medical sales company to sell their nails, I don’t know. Plate was fine, in my opinion there was no reason to muck the knee through this surgery. Best of luck to you. Hope this helps someone in the future. -Nick

[@jaxonschlutz1279]

welp, too late for me, i dont have knee pain but i never know how it will do in the future

[@nickdamato8657]

Jaxon Schlutz Nice, that’s awesome! Pain free is great. I’m glad you’re well and hope it stays that way 🤙🏼

[@MrJkennedy12345]

Most of the pain, from what I’ve been told, subsides when you take the rod out. Although it’s not medically necessary, or advised, you can take the rods and screws out ~2 years post union.

[@nickdamato8657]

Jared Kennedy congratulations on your healing and being two years out, grateful to be walking no doubt! Yeah as for me I never actually got the rod put in because the guide wire that lines the broken bone up wouldn’t go through the lower part of the tibia and so they scarped it and sowed my knee back up and put on the plate from my shin to lower ankle after all. so I cannot attest to anything other that the surgery itself causing the interior knee pain or just the way my particular body healed after the surgery with scar tissue and after physical therapy. Perhaps there’s more to be done though with PT and I’ve just started to get back into it after recently flairing it up from riding Mt. Bikes a lot. I’ve started doing shockwave with my chiropractor which creates trauma in the ligaments and enables the body implement a healing response. So I’ve been doing that along with some new PT stuff and Accupuncture and ice at times too. I recently went into to see another surgeon to talk to them about my knee challenges and about the these anterior knee pain post surgery studies and she said there’s also potential complications for the plate particularly with a larger chance of infection and or the skin not healing correctly over it. And that the lower leg doesn’t take to skin graphs and so there’s a potential for amputation if things were to get to this stage. So clearly there are drawbacks to the plate as well. Pardon my ignorance around that in my earlier post, I just learned this speaking to her and she felt that going through the knee was less invasive overall and big picture including these factors that obviously weren’t in my awareness to even know but.. anyways I still wanted to inform others on my experience and share so we can all move through these things and minimize the physical suffering from the beginning or later stages. I also brought up stem cells and she said in inconclusive for now and expensive 5-10k. But she did mention prp but that sounded more temporary and not so much for like a chronic pain. But who knows could be worth trying.. My Chiro also mentioned there’s something called prolotherapy but I haven’t looked into it yet. And I’m just sharing these other alternatives for other who wind up reading here. Hope you’re well, all the best! -Nick

[@shadowavedat]

@@nickdamato8657 I also got tihs done but sometimes no other option. I had 3 major fracture and countless small ones. so there is no other option for me. they open up. clear the small ones. and use this method. after 1 mounth of surgery ı can partially walk without help. ı can ride my bike use the stairs etc. it has been 10 mouth now and unless u put my knee in the ground there is no pain at all. most of the time ı just forget it is there. by the way if anyone wonders it after firts 2 week it hurts like ı broke it everytime I try to move it. so dont move unless you have to

[@kellly2803]

AVOID THIS SURGERY AT ALL COSTS. 5 YEARS OF NON STOP PAIN. Once removed completely stopped all pain. Avoid this fixation if you can