It's common to leave metal orthopedic hardware in the bones. New bone simply remodels itself around the metal rods and screws.
Sometimes the hardware is removed, but that is best left up to the surgeon. They will normally only remove hardware if there are actual problems such as movement, breakage, nerve impingement, pain, loss of range of motion or some kind of metal allergy. Removing the hardware means going through another surgery and recovery/rehab, so so long as there are no problems, then they will not bother to put a patient through an unnecessary additional surgery. Surgerys have inherent risks such as blood loss, infection, clotting, scarring, nerve pain, strain on the overburdened healthcare system, etc, so that is why doing unnecessary surgerys are avoided.
Is it normal they left a 6inch screw in my arm?
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It's common to leave metal orthopedic hardware in the bones. New bone simply remodels itself around the metal rods and screws.
Sometimes the hardware is removed, but that is best left up to the surgeon. They will normally only remove hardware if there are actual problems such as movement, breakage, nerve impingement, pain, loss of range of motion or some kind of metal allergy. Removing the hardware means going through another surgery and recovery/rehab, so so long as there are no problems, then they will not bother to put a patient through an unnecessary additional surgery. Surgerys have inherent risks such as blood loss, infection, clotting, scarring, nerve pain, strain on the overburdened healthcare system, etc, so that is why doing unnecessary surgerys are avoided.