Ripped lower leg

[Eiko]

Hi!

To all you medical experts: Imagine a man with a ripped open lower leg, the muscle is damaged, blood vessel also, bone's intact.
If this wound is treated with modern surgery - how long before he could stand and walk about 1 mile without agonizing pain or the wound breaking open again?

Or the other way 'round: How grave could this wound be if he should be walking 1 mile after about 1 week? What would you think would be realistic?

(Let's assume the wound heals well, no inflammation, best medical treatment - but no pain relievers!)

Thanks!

Eiko

[Tsu Dho Nimh]

How much of a wuss is he? You can have him hurting as much as the plot requires.

Skip the blood vessel damage ... damage to the calf muscle is going to be painful, and the muscle will be stiff and he'll be limping. (know a guy who had a dog bite to the calf and he walked painfully for quite a while)

Just physical therapy to get him moving is going to be painful.

Wounds stitched with modern technology don't usually "break open" unless you abuse them.

[Fenika]

If the right nerves are damaged he won't be walking (or not walking right) for weeks and weeks... So watch out for those :)

Generally the wound would need to be pretty 'clean'- no muscle ripped out or torn in odd ways (think knife or clean tooth rip, rather than running him through a shredder or grating his leg against gravel)

[Kenny]

I was up, walking, and pushing a (heavyish) motorbike minutes after a crash which involved my calf being trapped between my bike and the kerb while moving forward for a couple of meters. Okay it wasn't major but I've still got one nasty looking red patch on my leg--though it doesn't hurt at all now.

[HeronW]

Lots of factors: the extent of the wound--from kneecap to ankle or less, vertical or horizontal, are the tendons damaged, depth of damage in muscle, blood loss, infection from the initial wound, nerve damage etc. It would take longer than a week to have the stitches removed. There would probably be inner disolvable stitiches and outer removable ones, plus the dressing would need to be changed daily, a drainage tube(s) might be in to drain infections, secondary infections can come from staph, etc.

If the man needs to walk 1 mile a week later, it better be a short shallow wound with no tendon damage, no infection, no nerve damage.

[GeorgeK]

There's not enough information about the wound to say. How long is the gash? How Deep? Where on the leg? etc. Keep it vague on specifics and you could do whatever you want. Just don't have any tendons sticking out of the wound.

[Glen T. Brock]

Hello folks,

I had a brother in law who caught his pant's leg in a chainsaw and ripped his thigh open from the crotch to the knee to the bone. He didn't cut the femoral artery or any major nerves so he was stitched up and, in a few weeks, was okay with the exception of a VERY ugly scar.

Glen T. Brock