Surgeon’s Belief About Removal of Orthopedic Implants Implant removal belongs to the foremost common elective orthopedic procedures in the industrial countries. In an often-cited Finnish study, implant removal contributed to almost 30 percent of all planned orthopedic operations, and 15 percent of all operations of the department.
Controversy exists as to the necessity for routine orthopedic implant removal. In children, it can be essential to remove implants early to avoid disturbances to the growing skeleton, to avoid their bony confinement making later removal technically hard or impossible, and to enable for planned reconstructive surgery after skeletal maturation (for example, in case of hip dysplasia). In adults, pain, the resumption of strenuous activities or contact sports after fracture healing, soft tissue irritation, as well as the demand of patient are typical indications for removal of implant in clinical practice. Numerous surgeons will remember patients whose intractable, barely explainable local symptoms and complaints resolved rapidly after the procedure. Though, ortho implant removal needs a second surgical procedure in scarred tissue and poses a risk for re-fractures and nerve damage. Pain can even get worse after implant removal. In a series of 109 femoral nail removals, a rise in pain and discomfort was noted in 4/58 (7 percent) of all patients with, and 10/51 (20