Jewelry designer Eve Alfille, 72, sought medical attention for a wrist fracture just 10 days before she was to show a new collection of work at her gallery in Evanston.
She thought her show would be ruined because she would be unable to finish hand-crafting her jewelry with a clunky cast on her wrist.
She went to one doctor who told her he wouldn’t perform surgery – the wrist would just have to heal on its own. Without the surgery she faced permanent displacement, and might not have been able to twist her wrist ever again, she said.
“They weren’t really interested in my needs,” Alfille said. “I am a jewelry designer and there is a certain use of my hand that I just need – I wouldn’t be able to work.”
She was devastated and sought a second opinion. That’s when Dr. Mark Cohen, an orthopedic surgeon at Rush University Medical Center who specializes in hand, wrist and elbow surgery, told her that using the latest technology he could fix her wrist and have her back to work in just a few days.
“It was remarkable,” Alfille said. “There was no pain, before or after, and I was able to do work that same day.”
Alfille is but one of many patients who will find wrists fractures less of an inconvenience than in years past. New technology, which attaches small plates to the bone, has been tested over the past five years and has now had enough trials to be proved very effective at getting patients up and running months faster than before without risk of reinjuring the bone, Cohen said.
Wrist fractures are the most common type of broken bones, which means many people could potentially be incapacitated by the injury. Cohen said in the winter with slippery sidewalk and ice-crusted parking lots he treats three to four broken wrists a week. In addition to being of use on the wrist, the plates can also be used in ankle, leg, hip and other types of fractures.
“These small little locking plates have revolutionized the way we treat broken wrists,” Cohen said. “Patients experience less pain, fewer problems after surgery, recover quicker and rapidly recover their mobility and function.”
The small locking plates are secured internally with small screws placed directly into the bone. Once in place the plates are extremely secure and permanent. The patient can almost immediately enter rehabilitation therapy and start to return to normal activities, Cohen said. Using old technology, including casts, to set the wrist -- or external screws fixed into place with metal bars -- the patient would not enter therapy until about two months after the fracture occurred.
The process is much faster because the body is essentially tricked into thinking it is healed because it has been bolted back together internally, said Dr. John Fernandez, Cohen’s partner in orthopedics at Rush University Medical Center.
“We have a couple of students who were treated the old way versus the new way and the difference is dramatic,” Fernandez said. “Patients are able to use the hand immediately rather than waiting for the fracture to heal.”
This surgery will be most influential for seniors who are the most common victims of falls that result in broken or fractured bones, Cohen said.
“Many older people live alone and their independence is very important to them,” Cohen said. “To be able to make somebody independent within a few days is a huge difference than having someone rely on only one hand for all of their activities.”
Source: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=76077
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