Hardware doesn't necessarily have to come out. Ortho doctor recently said that she's willing to take it out, but she's giving a 50/50 chance of it helping or making it worse. It's hard to say for sure if the hardware is part of the problem, it's never been really clear cut in his case. The pain is only directly over the hardware recently as he's started using it more with the rollerblading. So we're just waiting it out and giving it more time in hopes that he will continue to improve without surgery.
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Originally Posted by Littlepaw
Hi Swimtime,
It seems intuitively that there would be risk either way. I'm sure that whether they are able to address the pain contributor and how delicately they handle the tissue makes a difference.
When I had my ortho surgery that caused the damage I had a lot of bruising and swelling, it was a 25 minute procedure. When I had my nerve repair of 3.5 hours I had no bruising at all and minimal swelling. The difference was the tissue handling. The plastics guys are careful and meticulous.
I haven't seen any specific literature on risk breakdown of surgery with CRPS 1 or 2. CRPS 2 is less likely to spread and some of the later studies have indicated that surgery is recommended for CRPS patients if the pain contributor can be addressed. Does the hardware have to come out eventually no matter what due to your son's growth? That may sway the decision.
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