Six months after ankle surgery and there is skin discoloration
by Wendy
I was wondering if you could help me.. my husband has had four different ankle surgeries over the past 18 months on his right ankle after he broke it at work. It started out that they put a plate and pins in to correct the break, then took one pin out so he coule start PT, then in 10/07 he had a reaction to the remaining pins and plate so they removed those. He went back to work, but still had a lot of pain and swelling that he delt with along with some discoloration around the scar. Then in July 2008 a different doctor went in and removed part of the nerve saying that part of it was caught in the incision and was causing his pain. But since then he still has had a great deal of pain and swelling in his ankle, hardly able to work because he can not stand for long periods of time, and he is always getting cramps in the calf of that leg. Can you give me an idea of what is causing the brownish discoloration and the cramping? he also has had a lot of muscle loss in that leg. I am not sure if the picture will help much. Thank you. Hi Wendy, The brownish discoloration is known as hemosiderin deposits which is nothing more than bleeding under the skin. It is pretty much permanent and it is harmless. The bigger problem is your husbands ability to walk. In general the more surgery a person has in the same area, the greater the liklihood there is going to be problems later on. As far as your husband's ankle goes it sounds like the "Perfect Storm". He broke his ankle, had it repaired, had to have hardware removed, then had partial nerve resection, etc. Since I do not have the luxury of examining him I cannot accurately predict the future for your husband. Of all his doctors pick the one that you have the most trust in and have a very specific conversation on what can be done at this point to make your husband more functional. Marc Mitnick DPM
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