Tibia Pin Removal?

[Shawn007]

I'm 43 yrs old. This last April, another rider in the first turn smashed my Tibia and Fibula. Complete breaks. Doctor put a pin in the Tibia from just below the knee all the way through to the ankle. Doctor suggests I leave it in forever. He also said that if I choose to take it out, I could do so after 1-1.5 years. But another moto dude says to have it taken out. His reasoning is based on the potential for future breaks. He says that if I break the leg again, the pin would cause the bone to shatter and splinter around the pin, that would bend.
If I take the pin out, the bone is free to break clean again.
I do plan on racing until I'm 80. What should I do?

 

[Chili]

Tough call but one I'm familiar with. My son broke his femur in 04 and they didn't rod it like yours but instead put a plate on the outside of the femur. The surgeon who did the surgery in Oklahoma was emphatic that the plate should be removed down the road to lessen the risk of the plate causing stress risers and causing an easier re-break. Well it took less than a year for him to crash bend the plate and re-break the femur. In 2 weeks he goes for surgery to get the plate removed.

With rodding you don't have the stress riser issue, however you do have the issue of trying to get a mangled rod out of a broken bone should you biff and break it again. Our local surgeon in Winnipeg would be of the opinion to leave the rod or plate alone unless it's bugging you. We had to convince him we wanted the plate out of my kids leg as he really wasn't keen on doing the surgery.

My uneducated bottomline would be if you plan to continue to race the rod should come out.

Also I'll move this to the correct forum for Injuries/Training.

 

[dezryder]

I have no experience with this, the plates and rods and the like. I have had knee surgery due to biking mishaps however. IMHO, I would get the rod taken out. (just my two cents)