[HN Gopher] Researchers develop novel 'bone bandage' material fo...
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Researchers develop novel 'bone bandage' material for cracked bones
Author : wglb
Score : 44 points
Date : 2024-02-02 16:51 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (phys.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
| ravxx wrote:
| Could this allow for someone to have an advantage? I was reading
| Conor McGregor may have a slight advantage after breaking his leg
| due to a new special type of rod they attached to his leg that
| may make it more resistant to breaking.
| ortusdux wrote:
| There are reportedly some exercises/trainings you can do to
| increase bone density in those regards.
|
| https://sites.nd.edu/biomechanics-in-the-wild/2021/07/14/a-s...
| hacoo wrote:
| It is common for practitioners of Muai Thai and other
| kickboxing styles to harden their shins by whacking them with
| hard objects, or rolling something hard like a bottle across
| the bone. Sparring and hitting the heavy bag also harden your
| bones over time.
|
| Kicks are normally blocked with the lower leg in Muai Thai.
| This often results in shin-on-shin contact which can be very
| painful for both fighters. So the point isn't so much to
| prevent full bone breaks (which are very rare) as to toughen
| the bone enough to handle this abuse... and make sure it
| hurts more for the other guy than it does for you.
| lostlogin wrote:
| Logically yes, but there are a lot of downsides. Here [1] is a
| paper discussing long bone rodding in athletes.
|
| [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4560006/
| antoniojtorres wrote:
| I have to wonder how large the advantage may be if even present
| at all. Excluding any residual mobility issues from the surgery
| there's still all the other aspects of leg kicks he has to deal
| with like the brutal pain a leg kick causes. I don't know, I
| think that might just be people min maxing a little too much.
| hacoo wrote:
| Yeah, it would be a small advantage at best. Leg kicks very
| rarely break bones, usually they rely on causing pain and
| damage to tissue. And surgery will result in lost training
| time, plus the risk of something going wrong long term...
| calamari4065 wrote:
| Anyone who's had orthopedic surgery will tell you, your
| limb/joint is never the same. Absolutely no one would
| choose it if the alternative weren't worse.
| chrisco255 wrote:
| I dunno, I've spoken to old people who have gotten hip
| replacement, and they told me they regret they didn't do
| it sooner, as it allowed them to golf again, etc. Seems
| like in some cases, it isn't "the same", it's actually
| better.
| Arrath wrote:
| To be fair there are differences in condition when
| someone 50/60/70+ gets a hip replaced and someone in
| their prime having it. The former will have had decades
| more wear and tear and overall degradation on their
| joints that the latter will not yet have had. The distant
| memories of what their hips were like may be faint enough
| they don't even really recall whether its better or not.
|
| Anecdotally I've also met older folks who expressed
| wishing they'd done it sooner for knee/hip replacements.
| I also have a friend with a health issue that required
| both hips replaced at 25, and they expressed frustration
| at the recuperation and physical therapy process, and
| they dread the fact that they're young enough for the hip
| replacements to need replaced themselves in a few
| decades, an issue the older recipients generally don't
| have to worry about.
|
| Anyway, that's just a long way in saying, "Do we have
| bionic hip implants 125% better than natural that anyone
| with means should get if they want?" and the answer being
| "Not yet"
| hotpotamus wrote:
| You've hit the nail on the head. I also have a childhood
| hip condition (Perthes disease) that has had me looking
| at hip replacements since my 20's and having the same
| fears as your friend.
|
| Looking at pro athletes is sort of instructive;
| essentially none of them have returned to play after a
| hip replacement (Bo Jackson kind of, but in limited
| capacity). A few, most famously Andy Murray, have
| returned after hip resurfacing, so it's probably about as
| close to a natural hip as possible, but likely still a
| bit inferior.
| depereo wrote:
| In general a doctor is going to recommend and proceed
| with a hip replacement because it has been proven to have
| a positive outcome on quality of life, even considering
| the risks associated with surgery.
|
| Someone getting a hip replacement is getting one because
| their existing hip is substantially impaired.
|
| Yes it's better than their situation immediately before
| the surgery. It's probably not better than when they were
| thirty.
| burnished wrote:
| You're neglecting that those old hips have degraded. They
| don't mean they wish they got a hip replacement at 30
| years old.
| calamari4065 wrote:
| Compared to a broken hip, literally anything is better.
| Compared to a healthy hip, a replacement is _always_
| worse.
|
| Which is the precise reason we only do joint replacements
| _after_ the joint is beyond repair. We don 't do hip
| replacements on healthy 28 year old marathon runners. To
| do so would markedly reduce their quality of life in both
| the long and short term.
|
| Again, most orthopedic patients will tell you that a
| replaced or repaired joint is never the same as it was
| when it was healthy. But living with such a damaged joint
| is so incredibly painful and difficult that anyone would
| choose surgery every time.
|
| If your daily life is 9/10 pain, a 3/10 seems like a
| godsend. If you live your life with _no_ pain, opting for
| surgery that leaves you with 3 /10 for the rest of your
| life is a pretty bad decision.
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