Ghosts and ghouls and skeletons—oh my! It’s that time of year again. Everywhere you look there are spooky decorations and tons of black and orange candy as people get ready for trick-or-treating. Of course, there are more frightening things to watch for than plastic witches and fake zombies. Problems like fracture complications in your ankles affect real-life skeletons and can ruin your Halloween.
Most of the time, an ankle fracture is easy to manage, especially if it’s caught right away. Immobilizing the joint in a cast allows the bone tissue to knit itself back together so that broken pieces are reunified. If the break goes untreated, however, and the bone doesn’t heal correctly, you can end up with some severe fracture complications that create chronic pain and weakness.
Ankle arthritis is one of the most common complications that arises after a break. Fractures that don’t heal properly may lead to wear and tear in the joint later. Delayed unification may develop if the ends of your bone struggle to knit back together. You may end up with pain or even some bone movement around the fracture site months after the initial injury. Sometimes the ends of the broken pieces aren’t properly aligned when they heal. This can result in bone deformities, ankle weakness, and chronic pain.
Open fractures, or injuries where the damage breaks the skin as well, increases your risk for osteomyelitis, or a serious bone infection. The general injury may damage surrounding blood vessels and nerves, too, which can lead to nerve pain and decreased circulation around the break. Occasionally a fracture from a hard impact can develop compartment syndrome as a complication as well.
The key to avoiding these fracture complications is, of course, to take care of your broken ankle right away. Don’t wait to care for the discomfort. Let the expert Martin Foot and Ankle team in Hanover, Lancaster, Lititz and York, PA, help you treat your ankle joint before future problems set in. You can make an appointment with us by using the web request form, or by calling us directly at (717) 757-3537.
