Nonunion of bones

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People often get injured and end up breaking their bones, which is referred to as fractures. Initially, the pain of fractures is unbearable and needs to be addressed with immediate medical attention. But, patients often complain that they still suffer from pain at the site of fracture. This condition occurs when the patient houses nonunion bones.

People often have several speculations about this disorder and question doctors like,

• What is nonunion?
• Why does this tend to happen even after treatment?
• How can it be treated?
• What are its risk factors?
• And many more.

Helping you have a better understanding of this disorder, we have penned down every information about it.

Let’s get started!

What is nonunion of bones?

With new techniques emerging in medical science, healing the fractured bones has become much more accessible than earlier. The right treatment of broken bones results in the formation of new bone tissues that connect the broken bone pieces.

However, certain bones cannot heal even after getting dedicated medical attention, including surgical or non-surgical treatment. Such bones that fail to heal are known as nonunions, and those fractures that take longer than usual to heal are referred to as the delayed unions.

Causes of nonunion of bones

The following are the causes that lead to nonunion of bones:

Instability:

The primary practice for healing a broken bone is keeping the broken piece stable and preventing their minor movement as well. However, when the patient fails to keep the broken pieces adequately stable after treatment, it results in the nonunion of bones.

Inadequate blood supply:

Blood stands to be the most critical component of the healing process. It supplies all the essential components to healing sites like oxygen, healing cells, chemicals, and much more. But if the blood supply is not sufficient, it prevents the broken bones from healing. Thus, it causes nonunion of bones.

Insufficient nutrition:

Another essential element for proper bone healing is the adequate supply of nutrients to the broken bones. When patients fail to consume well-balanced dietary supplements like vitamin-c, protein, calcium, vitamin-d, and many more, their broken bones don’t heal. Improper supply of nutrients often leads to nonunion of bones.

Severe injuries:

When the bones break due to severe injuries such as a big car-accident, they get permanently damaged. We must have seen such cases where severe accidents make people bed-ridden because they lose their ability to heal the broken bones.

What are the risk factors involved in nonunion of bones?

The following factors result in increasing the risk of nonunions and making the condition more severe:

• Use of tobacco or nicotine in any form
• Severe anemia
• Diabetes
• Low levels of vitamin-D
• Poor nutrition
• Medications, including anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and prednisone.
• Infection

What is the treatment for nonunion of bones?

Only after your doctor performs an accurate diagnosis, he/she will determine if you require surgical treatment or non-surgical treatment for recovering. Please consult with the doctor to know about every alternative of treating nonunion and its substantial benefits and risks.

You have the following alternatives for treating nonunions:

Surgical treatment

Several surgical alternatives can treat nonunion of bones efficiently.

Depending on the patient’s condition, the doctor can suggest any of the following:

• Bone Graft

  During this procedure, the surgeon removes pieces of bones from various other parts of the body by making an incision. Thereafter, these bones are transplanted to the nonunion site that is the affected area. Bone graft provides an efficient scaffold enabling the growth of new bone. It also provides fresh bone cells and natural chemicals for faster bone healing.

  Patients often find the transplantation process painful, but it is highly successful in treating the nonunions. Also, you need not worry about any structural, functional, or cosmetic problems that may arise due to the removal of bones from other parts.

• Allograft (cadaver bone)

  This procedure is a less painful solution for treating the nonunions. In this procedure, the bone harvesting procedure is avoided, which automatically decreases the pain involved. However, it also provides scaffolding like the conventional bone graft process. With time, the patient’s bone effectively replaces the cadaver bone and restores the natural bone movement.

  However, the bone graft procedure is impeccable in its way, but it does not provide sufficient stability alone.

Thus, doctors recommend surgical treatment accompanied by bone graft to enhance the stability, which includes:

• Internal fixation

  With internal fixation, the surgeon stabilizes a nonunion. The doctor either attaches the screws and metal plates to the outside of the bone or places a nail (rod) in the bone’s inside canal. This procedure performed in combination with bone grafting results in stability and stimulates healing.

• External fixation

  Another treatment that stabilizes the injured bone is external fixation. Under this procedure, the surgeon uses a rigid frame outside the injured site using wires or pins. This procedure is highly helpful if the nonunion has been resulted due to the fracture site’s instability.

Non-surgical treatment

Non-surgical procedures can treat certain nonunions. The most prevalent of all the non-surgical treatments is using a bone stimulator. It is a small device that stimulates healing using ultrasonic or pulsed electromagnetic waves. The treatment has to be followed every day by the patient. The patient has to place the stimulator on the skin over the nonunion site for at least 20 minutes or more.

Final outlook

If you are suffering from pain even after the treatment of fracture and the reason seems unknown to you, connect with Amandeep Hospital. Being the best orthopedic hospital in Amritsar, we are providing dedicated healthcare services 24X7.

We house the most proficient orthopedic surgeons who perform world-class treatments for healing the nonunions. So, if you are housing nonunions, kindly connect with us without any delay and get the right treatment timely.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]