Is it possible to re-break your leg in the same place 10 years after you first broke it?

Question

About 10 years ago i had an "argument" with my brother who was trained in Muay Thai, i broke my lower right leg, the "tibia" clean through! As this bone is non weight bearing, unlike the "fibula" i was still able to walk, but in a lot of pain! It was never plastered, but X-Rays confirmed the clean break.

Now in the same spot it hurts (but not as bad), feals like a stress fracture as EVERY step gives me pain, After intense activity, do you think its broken again?

Answer 1

Yep!  It's never gonna be as strong as it was.  It's harder to break a fracture but a clean break is a dead cert weak spot ... forever.

Only bone I ever broke was my thumb trying to be clever with a front and centre play when I didn't think I could mark.  I forgot how 'clever' it was and did exactly the same thing six years later.  Ooops, snap.

However. if you've been stressing it through exercise, chances are it's not re-broken but coming apart so to speak.  The knit isn't as flexible as an original unbroken bone and you've probably just aggravated it.  That's nearly as bad in feel as a break and takes longer to heal.

Answer 2

Straight to the docs, or head to the nearest hospital, free xrays there.

I did the same with a collarbone, same place but a fraction to the left of a break, it  actually fractured in to about 3 different breaks the 2nd time.

As you probably know, when you break a bone, marrow oozes out around the break and glues the bone back together, this why you see lumps around old breaks such as broken collarbones, they tend to break again next to the original break, the knitted or 'glued' are is normally pretty strong.

Francis Bourke from Richmond(yes i know you hate our game but you still come in the aussie rules section, so I'm relating an aussie rules story to you), once played the game out with a broken tibia, as you said they are not weight bearing, but still took a lot of courage for a soft aussie rules player, don't you think?  lol.

It should of been plastered in my opinion, it might have knitted back together but could now be putting pressure on a nerve or have a hairline fracture next to the original break.

good luck with it all, if you do decide to get an xray, let us know here what the out come was, cheers.

Answer 3

Yes, it's definitelt possible. THe knitted bone will always be slightly less strong at the break point. You may havea  hairline fracture on it. You'll need an X-ray

Answer 4

Yes.

Sounds like you're getting old (join the club!).

An x-ray or a scan wont do you any harm. At least you'll know then.