has anyone ever been to fracture clinic to be told the original diagnosis was wrong?

[workshy]

DD came off her scooter today, landed on out stretched hand and was in a fair amount of pain so I took her to the minor injuries center

diagnosed with a lunate dislocation, put in a scaphoid splint and told we will recieve an appointment at fracture clinic for sometime in the next 7-10 days

which is all well and good but it took them ages and 2 opinions to arrive at this conclusion and looking at DDs current level of pain, I'm doubtful that it is a dislocation or I could just be praying as we are going on holiday in 4 weeks

could they be wrong?

Why are you doubtful?

For what it's worth I think dislocation = more pain than a fracture .

gingeroots speaks the truth.

However - I broke my arm aged 10 - I could see the fracture myself on the xray - but the consultant said it wasn't broken and sent me home. Received a letter a week later asking me to go in for it setting in plaster cast.

My SD also had a broken ankle - hosp said it wasn't broken after xraying - but due to intense pain he returned a few days later and they re-examined the xrays and agreed it was fractured.

So - they don't always get it right!!

Fractured my ankle skiing 4 yrs ago. Couldn't find a thing in X-ray, went about my daily business for next 3 yrs some days in intense burning pain, I was also a runner prior to ski accident, 1 yr ago major pain from the ankle, lots of X-rays. MRI, cat scan wow and behold there was a fracture that was now a hole in the bone. Last week finally had ankle fixed but was told that there was more damage than previously thought and had done his best to ease the pain and discomfort, basically key hole surgery to stop the bone crunching on bone yuck. Will let you know in due course if it's better after such a long time. No bodies perfect even drs x

there are quite a few bones in the wrist and it can be hard to spot small fractures .... often even just a slightly different angle of x ray can make or break (pardon the pun) the difference between seeing one and missing one.

did they manipulate the dislocation back in or do they think had it been dislocated and righted itself.

agree dislocation a lot more painful than many fractures .. more displacment of muscles / tendons etc .

hope dd feeling better now

Yes to OP.

Both of my children when they were 2 hurt one of their legs, couldn't walk and were in a bit of pain.

Both times, had x-rays at A&E and were told that that bones weren't fracutured.

Both times, the hospital called the next day saying that a consultant had looked at the x-rays and there was a hairline fracture.

I'd go back to the hospital if I thought the diagnosis was incorrect. Hope that your dd feels better soon.

it's really swollen up today and she's in a fair old amount of pain with it even with it splinted

letter says not to contact them unless you haven't heard from them in 7 days -argh!!!

they didn't manipulate it, it was pushed over and slightly rotated but they said they thought that as the soft tissue swelling went down it would right itself

As far as I am aware, scaphoid fractures can take 10 days to diagnose. My FIL had a suspected one and he is a retired Doctor but was happy to go back in ten days.

Wrist stuff is notoriously hard to see on xray, and the damage to ligaments etc from a dislocation is very painful - more so than breaking a scaphoid
She needs to be keeping her hand above the level of her heart as much as possible - a beanbag on the bed next to her is a good rest, or propped up the back of the sofa.

yes, it happens.
when I broke my foot in A&E the x-ray showed only a chipped bone on the ankle, a few days later in the fracture clinic a break at the metatarsal (sp?) was visible.
some small breaks are only visible later when the calcification starts.

Yes my SM went back three times with my brother after having been told there was no break, there was and the eventually saw it the poor baby was is plaster for ages.

When the bone breaks the cells at either end of the fracture die back - so that's why sometimes they are missed on tiddly wee squiggly bones. Often a re-xray 2 or 3 days later shows something hidden at the time.

It'd be fair enough to take her back for a review if her pain is out of control - she shouldn't be in distress.

Also, dislocating a lunate is an usual one, especially in a child. There's usually lots of trauma round the injury in adults. I take it her fingers all move normally?

If you are at all worried, go back. You have a child in pain, that's a perfectly valid reason for review.
x

I once got pushed down a flight of stairs wet from top to bottom down a flight of stairs in approx 2002/3. i went to the local A&E the next day, got x-rays etc, could hardly walk on it. Ever since it's looked slightly deformed, nver sore but odd.Got told it was sprained.

fast forward to 2009, saw two rheumaotolgists and both said to me "Oh you've had an unhealed fracture on your ankle" . One then wnet on to say he could tell by the look of the ankle that I must have fractured it at some point and "not known" and it had healed deformed!

I have broken my wrist twice and was told it was a tiny bone called the scaphoid which is terribly difficult to see on an X-ray.

My father was having back pain last year so they took him in for an X-ray to check that there wasn't a fracture before starting physio. X-ray was reported as clear so they started physio and after a week or so of that took him for an MRI scan to check for any other issues. The MRI report said (effectively) "there are no evident problems apart from the broken vertebrae which obviously will have been picked up by the prior x-ray..."