Hardware removal
Also called: removing plates and screws, implant removal surgery
What it means
Hardware removal is surgery to take out metal plates, screws, rods, or pins that were used to fix a broken bone.
Knowing when and why hardware might need to come out helps you understand your recovery plan if you've had a fracture repaired with implants.
Hardware removal is a surgery to take out the plates, screws, rods, or pins that were placed to fix a broken bone. Most of the time, hardware stays in permanently without causing problems, since it's designed to be biocompatible and support healing long-term. It's only removed when there's a specific reason to do so.
Common reasons for hardware removal include ongoing pain or irritation near the implant, hardware that's loosening or breaking, infection around the pin site, limited joint motion caused by the hardware, or the hardware simply being in young, growing bone where it may eventually interfere with growth. Sometimes it's removed before a related joint replacement or revision surgery.
This is a decision made together with your orthopedic surgeon, based on your symptoms, imaging, and how the fracture has healed. After hardware comes out, there's a healing period, and bone in that area can be temporarily weaker until it remodels, so your surgeon may give you specific activity or weight-bearing guidance during recovery.
Surgical hardware fixing a broken bone sometimes needs a second surgery later to be taken out.
Where this leads
WordHardware removal follows an earlier fix. Curious about the common surgery that first repositions and secures broken bone pieces?
Related words
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Revision surgery is a repeat operation to replace or repair a previous joint implant, like a hip replacement, that…
A pin site infection is an infection where a metal pin or wire enters the skin from an external fixator, a frame…
Education only, not medical advice. Decisions about tests, medications and treatment belong with your own doctor. OsteoStrong does not diagnose, treat or cure any disease.
