Navicular bone fracture
in Health ·
Sophia Hernandez said:My brother broke his wrist about a month and a half ago. He went in for X-rays the next day, got a splint, and then a cast a week later.
The diagnosis was some kind of mid-shaft scaphoid fracture. They put him in a closed cast for the navicular bone, but when he went to get the cast removed today, the doctor looked at the imaging and said it wasn't healing well. He used the term "non-union," essentially saying the bone isn't knitting together properly. They put him back in a cast for another four weeks, after which he'll need more X-rays and potentially an MRI to see what's actually going on.
Can anyone explain what this lack of healing means? What are the next steps, what should he expect, and what are the potential long-term consequences?
The tricky part is that those bones are quite small and oddly shaped, making them very difficult to immobilize effectively. When they talk about the bone "drying up" or not healing, they are likely referring to insufficient callus formation—which is the new bone tissue that's supposed to bridge the fracture site.