Levi Leipheimer Wrist Fracture

Levi Leipheimer has fractured his Wrist during a crash at the Tour de France yesterday and as I write this is most likely in the recovery room. For those of you interested into what happened it looks like he must have fallen on an out stretched hand that placed all of the pressure on the Scaphoid bone a small bone in the wrist. So big deal right just tape him up and he can muscle around it. No Way!!!


He has a transverse
fracture of the scaphoid bone that can be much more of a problem and if the fracture of the scaphoid was more proximal or closer to his wrist then he is much more likely to have major complications like avascular necrosis, nonunion or radiocarpal degenerative arthritis. You see in the middle of this bone is the main supplying arte

ry so if the fracture occurs below this then you will have no blood supply so the best approach is to place a small titanium screw to fuse the two bones so there is less likely for a problem to occur. With Avascular Necrosis the position of the fracture relative to the principle artery is the most crucial factor so I hope that it is a more favorable spot. If the fracture site is Distal or more away from the wrist then it is unlikely to occur. Another complication is Nonunion and occurs in approximately 30 percent of fractures involving the waist of the fractures and that is another reason why his was fused. Take a look at the 22mm screw that was place in his scaphoid on the right.

This was taken from Levi's tweet's that are great by the way so make sure you add him. The Radiocarpal Degenerative Arthritis may follow a healed scaphoid fracture of any type but he will be retired by then. Healing time 6 to 20 weeks is the text book answer but Levi is a professional athlete so the healing time should be much shorter. The athlete's I have treated with this condition we have also added Micro current to speed healing time as well as Low level laser this combined with great nutrition and a change in his supplements and the quick surgery should serve him well.

One final note I hate to see athlete's get injured when they look like they are doing so well in an event and in my opinion Levi had a great shot at the podium. He will be missed by Lance and Alberto on team Astana that's for sure. So I wish him a speedy recovery. Also check out Levi's site for more Info.

http://www.levileipheimer.com/