Lower Extremity Injury

Your lower extremities (legs) are vulnerable to trauma from sports injuries, falls, and car accidents. The Orthopedic Trauma Surgeons of Northern California team in Carmichael, California, excels at performing tibia and fibula fracture repair in the lower extremities. Their expertise ensures you benefit from pain relief and restored function. 

What are lower extremity injuries?

Your lower extremities are your legs. The most common lower extremity injuries are tibia and fibula fractures (broken bones). These happen in car accidents, falls, and twisting while playing sports.

The tibia and fibula are a pair of long bones between your knees and ankles. The larger, thicker tibia (shinbone) is the main weight-bearing bone. The fibula is on the outside of the tibia, supporting it and helping to stabilize your lower leg muscles and ankles.

Which lower extremity injuries might affect me?

Common lower extremity injuries the Orthopedic Trauma Surgeons of Northern California team sees include:

Tibial shaft fractures

Shaft fractures affect the middle (shaft) of the tibia. A nondisplaced fracture is where the broken bones stay in alignment. A displaced, noncomminuted fracture happens when the bones break into two pieces but aren’t aligned. A displaced, comminuted fracture is where the bones break into several or many fragments and are out of alignment.

Distal tibial fractures

Distal tibial fractures (tibial plafond or pilon fractures) affect the ankle end of your tibia. These fractures are usually oblique (diagonal) or transverse (horizontal) breaks in the bone.

Proximal tibial fractures

Proximal tibial fractures (tibial plateau fractures) affect the knee end of your tibia. Depending on where it is, a proximal tibial fracture could affect your knee’s stability and damage the growth plates in children’s bones.

How are lower extremity injuries treated?

Tibia and fibula fracture treatment varies depending on how severe the injury is, your age, and whether you have other health problems. A nondisplaced fracture might only require closed reduction — nonsurgical bone setting and a cast to immobilize the leg. If the fractured bones are out of alignment, your doctor can manipulate them into place before applying a cast.

The Orthopedic Trauma Surgeons of Northern California team specializes in open reduction. This involves surgically setting the bones back into position. While you’re under a general anesthetic, your surgeon exposes the damaged bones and pieces them together. They can use internal fixation, connecting the broken bones using screws, plates, and rods that stay in place.

Some lower extremity injuries require external fixation. This is where your surgeon uses pins, rods, and clamps to stabilize tibia or fibula fractures from the outside while the injury heals. They insert wires to hold the fractured bones in place (percutaneous pinning) until they heal.