Are the pins removed after a broken bone is healed?

IThey can be if they are a problem but generally are left in. In my case, the follow up orthopedist has suggested it as a possibility but I don’t plan to do it unless they really bother me.

Some pins are permanent, but depending on the severity of the break and it’s location, the pins that can be removed are generally taken out about halfway through the healing process. When they pinned my sons wrist, he had a cast for 6 weeks before they removed the pins, then they recasted his wrist for 5 more weeks. He’s only 14 though and kids heal pretty fast.

My husband had them in both legs as a baby. They were eventually removed after two years.

When I had a command fracture of my tibia, two screws, about two inches long, were put in place during emergency surgery.

They were removed during followup visit to the orthopedist when my last cast was removed. The doctor used a medical version of a Yankee screwdriver to unscrew them. I was awake under a local anesthetic, but I could feel the vibration every time he pushed the screwdriver.

I still have the screws.

Mine were. The intent was to leave them in my leg, but it was so cold in the winter that the area around the metal just ached and ached. So they removed them about a year after the original surgery.

For those of you who had pins or screws removed, what was the recovery time after that? I really don’t want to be laid up or discomfitted again.

Recovery from the initial knee surgery was 4 months. This was 1976; they do that surgery differently now, and it’s much quicker.

Following pin removal a year later, recovery time was pretty short, maybe a couple of weeks. I wasn’t laid up for more than a day or two. I remember sitting in the hospital bed hand-sewing a Halloween costume that I wore to a party the following weekend. (A nurse did say you’re not going anywhere next weekend, and I said yes I am.)

I wore an Ace bandage for a few weeks, for stability and support, but could take it off to bathe—the keeping-dry part lasted just a few days. I think I used crutches for just a brief while.

@janbb I walked out o the doctor’s office, he used medical tape to close the incision, not even a stitch. I replaced the bandage when I got home and after I had showered, my leg had been in a cast for eight weeks and was rather foul.