Damaged growth plate effect both legs?!


Question: Damaged growth plate effect both legs!?
Say you damaged or fractured the growth plate in your knee, and it effected the growth of it, making it stunted and shorter then if no accident to the growth plate occured!. Would it in any way effect the other leg which is perfectly fine!. Would the good leg decline its growth as the injured leg has be stunted!. Or would you get one long leg and one short!? Has this ever happened to any one!? where physically one is really longer then the other!?

And since the growth plate is damaged does it required extra hormones,minerals or what ever a bone needs to grow!? and if so would it mean the opposite leg would get a shorter surply of the stuff the bone needs to grow, meaning both legs are the same lenght but the would of been say 2 inches longer if no growth plate damage occured one of the legs!.

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Answers:
If you damaged the growth plate of a bone, it would affect only the growth of that bone!. It would have no effect whatever on the other bones at all!. You could concievably end up with one leg or arm shorter than the other, how much would depend on how bad the plate was damaged and how well it responded to treatment!. Growth plate fractures involving the knee are usually the most likely to have complications!. If the fracture is not displaced and the blood vessels have not been damaged, simply casting and watching usually work well, and there isn't a noticeable difference in the final length!. In cases where the fractured edges are displaced or there is damage to blood vessels, surgery will be needed quickly to preserve the plate!. In cases where there is a compression fracture, or the injury actually removes parts of the growth plate, then the chances are almost 100% that you will have arrested bone growth!. There are also drugs and physical therapy that can help in less severe cases, and orthopedic surgeons usually monitor the person for months afterwards to check on the bone growth!. While the bone plate is healing, there isn't any growth in length, but once healing is complete, it should start again!. Since most everyone has slight differences in leg length, the difference usually isn't enough to really notice or cause problems!. As with any broken bone, the healing process requires extra calcium and protein for the repairs!. The bone will not necessarily heal a lot faster, but it will be a little speedier if you at least have adequate building material available!. It's kind of hard to say how much difference there would be in final length if you did or didn't add the nutritional supplements, and although growth would slow all over, it wouldn't stop while the fracture mended- except in the bone with the fracture!. The body would likely shift keep up supply to the growth plates all over, and you simply wouldn't be reinforcing bone that was already grown for a while!. Your body could also opt to rob your teeth of that calcium, if things got that bad!. That happens in pregnant women without sufficient calcium available for building baby bones!. That's why the old wives used to say you lost a tooth for each baby!. Anyway, things would have to be pretty desparate before you got to that point I would think, and hopefully you would be able to heal without sacrificing a tooth!. But it's a good arguement for drinking your milk!.

Edit - I'm sure your orthopedic surgeon took into account your growth plate when he did the repair!. There are variations of the repair especially for the skeletally immature athlete- a fancy way of saying a young athlete who is still growing!. They specifically identify the growth plate during the surgery, and use special techniques to minimize the damage!. Obviously there will be some minor disruption in the growth, but since is is the result of a surgical repair, the amount would most likely be minimal!. At your age, growth occurs in fits and spurts anyway- so the fact you had a time of rather rapid growth and then a slow down isn't a real surprise!. Your orthopedic surgeon would have been checking the growth plate in the MRI/CT or xrays to ensure that growth was occuring afterwards!. I can't predict your final height, and orthopedics isn't exactly my field of expertise, so I can't tell you a lot more than that!. To get the answers you want you will need to speak to your orthopedic surgeon!. However, in an otherwise healthy young man, you can expect growth to continue until your early 20's, so there is still plenty of time yet for you to be growing!. While the procedure may have temporarily halted or slowed growth, I don't imagine the total amount will be enough to make a significant difference in the end!. Young bones are pretty resilient, fortunately!. It's the knee you need to take care of there- bones regrow!. Joints get messed up for a long time, and even the best orthopedic surgeon in the world can't make that like new again!. Knee replacements, even partials, are never quite as good as the original undamaged joint!. So whatever you do, follow the advice you get for taking care of that knee!. And put the other questions to your doctor because he's the one with your xrays and tests, and in the best situation to know your particular situation!.Www@Answer-Health@Com

I think this is a question you should as your doctor!. Www@Answer-Health@Com





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