Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Tha Fibula
Dr. Andrew Bishop: “The ankle is made up of three bones, basically the talus, the tibia and fibula. The bone that Mike broke was the fibula. What happens is external rotation injury of the foot basically gets planted and the foot rotates out. We can’t tell exactly how much damage there was to the ligament. We think it is minimal because the break is very clean, it is not displaced at all and the bones are perfectly lined up. If there was substantial ligament damage then the talus and the fibula would shift over laterally and that would require a surgical intervention. We don’t know for certain – no MRI or test will tell you – how much damage there is (in the ligaments). If there is significant damage then we would expect the two bones in the next 10 days to two weeks to migrate laterally. We will follow this very carefully and very closely to be sure that doesn’t happen. If it does then it would change our treatment plan. It would require surgery. I don’t think that is going to happen, but we don’t know. Only time will tell. The plan right now is to simply treat him with a cast, follow it along with X-rays, at the appropriate time place him in a removable-type cast and then start some rehab. Typically it takes six weeks for a bone to heal; uncomplicated bone healing is about six weeks. That just means the bone is healed, it does not necessarily mean that everything else is like it should be. We don’t know. It maybe as little as six weeks that he will be back playing football full speed, but we don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
¶ 8/19/2003 11:40:00 AM
Dr. Andrew Bishop: “The ankle is made up of three bones, basically the talus, the tibia and fibula. The bone that Mike broke was the fibula. What happens is external rotation injury of the foot basically gets planted and the foot rotates out. We can’t tell exactly how much damage there was to the ligament. We think it is minimal because the break is very clean, it is not displaced at all and the bones are perfectly lined up. If there was substantial ligament damage then the talus and the fibula would shift over laterally and that would require a surgical intervention. We don’t know for certain – no MRI or test will tell you – how much damage there is (in the ligaments). If there is significant damage then we would expect the two bones in the next 10 days to two weeks to migrate laterally. We will follow this very carefully and very closely to be sure that doesn’t happen. If it does then it would change our treatment plan. It would require surgery. I don’t think that is going to happen, but we don’t know. Only time will tell. The plan right now is to simply treat him with a cast, follow it along with X-rays, at the appropriate time place him in a removable-type cast and then start some rehab. Typically it takes six weeks for a bone to heal; uncomplicated bone healing is about six weeks. That just means the bone is healed, it does not necessarily mean that everything else is like it should be. We don’t know. It maybe as little as six weeks that he will be back playing football full speed, but we don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
¶ 8/19/2003 11:40:00 AM
