Screws/plate in wrist: leave in or take out?

So I got several screws and a plate put in my wrist (radius) last fall. I was told by the Doc that 80% of people get these taken out. I honestly forgot the negatives of leaving the stuff in. I would also like to save $2500 by not taking them out. I have pain here and there that is probably liked to the metal in my wrist which (probably) would be alleviated if I were to get this stuff out, but the pain is more of an annoyance than anything. So, looking for opinions/experience with leaving this stuff in or taking it out. FWIW, I have a PPO insurance plan now and will be switching to a consumer based healthcare plan August 1st. I would have to put out approximately $2500 for the surgery before Aug. then am not sure with the CBHP, don't really understand how surgeries are treated with the new plan.

I had 3 screws in an ankle which never really bothered me BUT when I broke my tib/fib the screws were in the way SO instead of doing a rod they did a plate cuz they were worried about hitting the screws ,after 6 months I had EVERYTHING taken out including the 2 of the 3 screws from the 1st operation BUT the last screw was TOO stubborn to come out

so besides the ghost pains from leaving hardware in the body it can get in the way of the next operation SO I would get the HW taken out ASAP

we got universal HC up here so I can't help you on that

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Originally Posted by SLSki

So I got several screws and a plate put in my wrist (radius) last fall. I was told by the Doc that 80% of people get these taken out. I honestly forgot the negatives of leaving the stuff in. I would also like to save $2500 by not taking them out.

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You may want a 2nd opinion. I had my 6 week post-surgery checkup this week - plate and 8 screws. holding radius together. I asked my Doc how often they take the metal back out. Answer: "Almost never - maybe twice over the course of several hundred". He said that unless the metal is in the way of another procedure, they will leave it in. Said risk of infection, time for holes to ossify, more rehab

What side of your wrist is your incision on (palm side or back side)? Most distal radius fractures are fixed through a palmar incision and the plates/screws are hardly ever taken out. If it's on the dorsal (back side) of the wrist, perhaps your MD is worried about tendon irritation, etc, and late rupture. Echo'ing the collective wisdom of the group, most wrist hardware stays in unless there's a specific reason, so I would just ask your MD why he/she routinely takes it out. As far as the aching, there is never a guarantee that removing hardware will make this better because previously broken joints often ache periodically just from the injury.

I debated having the plate and screws removed after the first fracture as well. At that time I had 7 screws of which one was diagonal through the fracture. That one irritated the h#$# out of me when rock climbing. Not from the movement but the head of the screw protruded and irritated the surrounding muscle tissue. The doc and I discussed having it removed but decided to wait until after the summer bike and run season was over. And the 3 weeks of recovery would be a good transition into early ski season... or so I thought until I broke my right radius again. But this time I broke it in a different place. Result... I did have the old hardware removed which was all bent up. In its place is a longer plate... about 6" in length with more screws. Here is a view of the old 4" plate that was removed:

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._6065358_n.jpg

So do I think removing the hardware would have made a difference... not so much. Did it hurt when I broke it again? Not really. It probably kept things from moving around as much as they did the first time when I dislocated the radius in addition to the distal fracture. Made for a cool story too. Broke arm while, sit on the side of the road at a convenience station with a bag of ice on my arm and ice cream in my hand while I waited for a friend to pick me up in his truck to go to the ER.

I had a plate and screws in my wrist for a radius fracture as well. It ached pretty badly, I think the doc recommended taking them out even before that though. I had them removed, no issues since. YMMV.

I have had a plate and 8 screws in my radius for a bit over a year now, my doc said they almost never come out. No pain or discomfort and I have pretty small wrists too, only a slight stiffness from some scar tissue occasionally, it feels solid on my mtb so im not worried about it

however, I just got a IM rod down my tibia around a month ago TR coming shortly and I will most likely get the wrist plate taken out in a year when the rod comes out.

Got a plate and screws in my wrist from d/r fracture playing baseball about 5 yrs ago. It used to bother me up to a year or so later, but now it does not bother me one bit. In fact I fell on it pretty hard mtb'ing early this summer and I actually think that I would have broken it again if the plate was not still in there--so I look at it as reinforcement. Unless an x-ray shows the screws backing out, you can always get it taken out down the road. So...just give it more time. As others have said, I would prefer not to get cut open again. My 0.02.