The complications associated with these fractures can be due to injury per se, failure to get right treatment or complication of treatment as such. Many complications are general complications associated with any fracture and few are specific to these fractures.
Here is list of most common complications of these fractures. We would be discussing important ones in detail in upcoming articles.
- Infection
- Nerve Injury
- Vascular Injury
- Compartment Syndrome
- Posttraumatic Radioulnar Synostosis
- Refracture
- Muscle and Tendon Entrapment and Adherence
- Malunion
- Nonunion
- Soft Tissue Contracture
- Subluxation/dislocation of the distal radioulnar joint in Galeazzi fracture
- Radial head instability in Monteggia fracture dislocation
I have had major complications with my neck, first I had a spinal fusion back in 2003 and then one year later I was still in a great deal of pain so the doctors were thinking the fusion didn’t take and had to re do it but when they got in there they found out that the fusion took fine, but the metal plate and screws had come loose and were causing nerve damage. Well I have been in severe pain since. I see a pain clinic and had the steroid injections and they tried to even inject (I forgot what it’s called) this medicine in the vertabrea to hopefully burn the nerve out, I have had one treatment and they want to do another one and we are waiting for approval.
Now I was in a car accident this past July, I was completely stopped and a drunk driver rear ended me and my neck did snap forward. Well I just had an MRI done last week and it shows a few mild annular bulging of the intervertevral disc with mild left foraminal stenosis a C2/C3t C4/C5-C6/C7
There was mild bone marrow edema at the tip of the odontoid process and a faint T2 dark line through the middle of the edema witch they think could be a sign of a nondisplaced fracture, now this accident happened 10 weeks ago and I guess my question is if I do have a fracture was any harm done all these weeks with no treatment or at the least not keeping my neck stable while it healed?
I do have to see a neurosurgeon to see what he thinks but I was hoping someone could answer this sooner. I just hope I didn’t do more damage by not knowing.
Dr Arun Pal Singh Reply:
October 25th, 2009 at 1:37 am
@Tammy,
This comment should have gone to spinal injuries. Anyway I am letting it stay here.
An undisplaced fracture would definitely heal by 10 weeks.
And it should not cause any problem either because tip of odontoid is not bearing any weight.
But do consult your doctor.
All the best