Spiral fracture to right tib and fib

Hi my son broke his leg on Wednesday 16th December 2009. He was playing football at school and jumped over another lad. He has a spiral fracture of the right tib and fib and is a full lenght cast. He spent two nights in hospital as there were not sure whether to pin and plate or to leave it. They decided to leave it and we went back to hospital on the 22nd Dec to be told that if there is no improvement or the bones are not sticky on the 29th Dec he would then need to have it pinned etc. What is the likelihood of him needing surgery? I also queried with the consultant as he broke his scaphoid in the summer also of this year whether or not he may have a weekness in his bones as both of these breaks were odd breaks!!! many thanks

you'l really have to just wait and see if the xray shows callous formation, the early signs of bone healing, when he is reviewed. the ortho will probably try to avoid using internal fixation but if he deems it necessary then its just something that'l have to be done, otherwise there may be a risk of malunion.

if your worried about the two breaks by all means have a doc look into it but i wouldnt worry too much. scaphoid is not that uncommon in younger people who tend to fall around a lot! i myself had a couple of breaks when i was younger and they were just the results of playing a lot of sport and messing around with my friends.

We went to hospital today and things are looking good, looks like the bones are sticky so fingers crossed no surgery yay. we go back in two weeks for further x-ray but at the moment the bones are in good positions so full cast for another two weeks and then hopefully he will have one just above the knee to stop it rotating for another 4 weeks.