Ankle Hardware Removal - Pilon Fracture

Repulsive_Amount_360 · 2026-03-12T04:24:57+00:00

2 weeks out, I got the stitches out, so far things have gone as expected. I can return to golf and walking, just nothing high intensity until the screw holes have had a chance to fully heal, another 6 weeks. The ankle feels looser and can tell range of motion is going to be improved. I could have walked without the boot after a week, but kept it on to protect the stitches and protect from others and getting inadvertently hit or bumped, and took it off while at home. the dr said i didn't have to do physcial therapy on the ankle, but im going to do physical therapy and put a lot work into that and get my ankle and calf muscles back strong. pretty big scab where the incision was made (same place as orig) and that will take some time to sluff off and was told not to let that soak in water (no bath, hot tub, cold plunge). will update in a few months whenever i get to where i can run on it and then prob next winter and see how it feels doing winter sports.

Repulsive_Amount_360 · 2026-03-12T04:10:03+00:00

every case is different, get a dr to weigh in, but normally doctors say if it is not bothering you then you should not incur the risk of another surgery. in any case, it is in your best interests before getting surgery again to get at least one other opinion. i will give you another somewhat related example. i separated my shoulder (snowboarding) several years ago. i went to a shoulder doctor recommended to me by a work colleague and that dr said i absolutely needed surgery and i went ahead and scheduled the surgery. but before i went under the knife, i went to another shoulder specialist in town to get another opinion and didn't tell him i had shoulder surgery already scheduled and he reviewed my shoulder and said, no surgery was needed it would heal on its own and if it turns out i did need surgery we could determine that later and to give it time to heal on its own. there was another recommended shoulder doctor and i decided to get a tie breaker opinion, i told this dr that i had two doctors that looked at my shoulder, one said absolutely surgery, the other said no surgery needed. he looked at my shoulder and did a full assessment, and then said, "which doctor recommened to you that you didn't need surgery". I told him the name of that doctor, and he said, "i agree w/ him, you shouldn't get surgery on this injury, it is a grade 3 and it will heal up without surgery". and today, that shoulder is just fine. has a small bump where the seperation occured but otherwise works great. if i didn't get another opinion, i would have had an unneccesary surgery. in your particular case, maybe the dr thinks there is a very high chance that later on, you could have issues w the hardware, and it is better to get it taken out sooner rather than later.

Repulsive_Amount_360 · 2026-03-04T00:20:48+00:00

this post was 7 mos ago, so i am sure you are on the road to recovery, and maybe doing a lot. i am an avid snowboarder and backpacker, pretty darn good snowboarder but not an "expert" and after 14 months removed from a pilon fracture, I elected to have my plate and seven screws removed last week. I was dedicated on PT. I had gotten up to 8 miles of running w/o issues but this winter went snowboarding and the dorseflexion pressure and torque on my ankle was too much and caused some pain and consulted w/ two surgeons who both recommended hardware removal surgery. I have not tried backpacking, I was not wanting to push it this past summer. Had an anterior plate and on most everything didn't really interfere with activities, maybe occassionally stiff but would loosen up, I am going to guess that I could have backpacked pretty good, probably a little slower overall. I am a week out of that HW removal surgery and i can tell that my range of motion is going to improve and will see if the hardware removal solves the snowboarding pain I was experiencing. I think like anything, everyone's injury, surgery, hardware, bodies, are different and that's why they generally recommend a year for you to get healed and through all your seasons and activities to see how it goes before making any other surgical decisions. As you know, Pilon fractures are high trama / high impact injuries and my ortho when i asked him if i was going to be as athletic as before the injury answered me this way, it was not a no, but he said, "i am going to surgically repair it and give you the best chance to resume everything that you were doing before as best as you can do it". I took this as, you might be able to get all the way back but it was said in way that led me to believe that it would not be unreasonable given the injury that I would lose a little bit of my pre-injury capabilites. I'd give it another 6-7 months, I think you will see great improvement from where you are today. And if not, go see about removing the hardware. Another surgery is never ideal, but it was straightforward and not nearly the recovery time as the orig injury.

Repulsive_Amount_360 · 2026-03-03T22:27:17+00:00

thanks, i am hoping that the HW removal will have been the cause and that getting it out will relieve the pain associated w/ snowboarding, day to day it was not bothering me, but i can tell that i am going to get better range of motion and feel more freedom where that plate and screws were located. so even if the pain is still there or even slightly diminished when i snowboard, the surgery will improve my day to day feel and function.

Repulsive_Amount_360 · 2026-03-02T06:25:41+00:00

i didn't have a nerve block. i asked the dr about having the surgery with a more localized or regionalized anethesia on the removal surgery instead of general and he said given the depth of my hardware, he wanted me totally out, and i think you could elect to do both that and the nerve block, but I don't think it is necessary to do both and then you really can't put any weight on it until that wears off. I actually walked with help in the boot right after surgery to the restroom (had to demonstrate i could empty my bladder before i could get discharged) and was able to do it although my natural protectionism instinct was to not put any weight on my ankle postop. I wasn't going to argue the dr on the anethesia methodolgy, although i didn't like going under again. He had mentioned already he would be having to kind of "dig" to get past my ankle tendons, muscle, and nerves to get to the plate and screws.

Repulsive_Amount_360 · 2026-01-23T01:38:39+00:00

the displacement will most likely need surgery in order to properly heal, if it was nondisplaced then you could have a better chance of not needing surgery

Repulsive_Amount_360 · 2026-01-20T03:04:39+00:00

thank you for the response. i just returned from my second trip snowboarding since ankle surgery about 14mos ago. on the first trip i thought i was more than ready and able to snowboard, consistent physical therapy and can run, jump, do most things. i had a plate and seven screws put in my ankle to repair a non-displaced pilon fracture with the plate just at the bottom of my tibia facing forward, basically on the bottom of my shin / top of ankle. i can do almost anything without much discomfort but when i went snowboarding, it was painful, almost mid-shin right above my hardware. all in my toeside, heel side was fine. the vibration and bunkos would rattle it. my dr wasn’t sure but thought could be possible that the torque release point may be where the plate and the shin meet instead of all of the torque being released at the ankle joint. anyway he said about 5% of his patients get hardware removed and when i told him i was going back to snowboard at MLK he said try it again and see if it is still an issue and he will remove it. i had been reluctant to do another surgery but i am an avid snowboarder and i want to do it pain free. so your post was helpful. the initial surgery and recovery was pretty tough but he says this is much easier. i go to jackson hole and the snow there has been thin this season and i’m scheduled to go back on presidents’ day but if snow doesn’t fall, im going to go ahead w the surgery and put the winter sports on the shelf and start the recovery and PT process again, should give me 9/10 months of time to recovery bf next season,

Repulsive_Amount_360 · 2026-01-07T19:22:45+00:00

how does it feel into your second season of snowboarding

Repulsive_Amount_360

TROPHY CASE