Trauma is orthopaedics without an appointment. It arrives from the Diamond Harbour Road on a Tuesday night, from a bathroom floor at six in the morning, from a football ground on Sunday. Unlike planned surgery, nobody chooses when a fracture happens — but a great deal still turns on the choices made in the days after it does: whether to operate at all, what to fix it with, and how soon to move the limb.
Fracture and trauma surgery is a core pillar of Dr. Pradyumna Chakraverty's practice. He completed his MS in Orthopaedics at KPC Medical College, Jadavpur, serves as an Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics, and manages injuries from simple wrist fractures to complex, multi-fragment breaks involving joints.
The public assumption is that surgery is the "serious" option and plaster the mild one. The truth is more interesting: the right treatment is the one that gets the bone to heal in the right position while keeping the rest of the person moving. A well-aligned wrist fracture in a cast can be a better outcome than an unnecessary operation. An unstable ankle fracture left in plaster can heal crooked and buy the patient arthritis at forty-five.
Dr. Chakraverty's assessment weighs the fracture pattern, the joint involvement, the bone quality, and the patient's life — a young labourer's wrist and a retired professor's wrist can carry the same crack and deserve different plans.
The old image of fracture care is a limb in plaster for three months. Modern trauma surgery exists largely to escape that image, because immobility has costs of its own: stiff joints, wasted muscle, and in older patients genuine danger. Stable internal fixation lets the joint move while the bone heals. That is why the choice of implant and technique matters — the operation is not just about joining bone, but about buying the patient permission to move.
Some fractures stall. A non-union — a fracture that has stopped trying to heal — has causes that can be found: motion at the fracture site, poor blood supply, quiet infection, smoking, uncontrolled diabetes. Treatment means correcting the cause, not merely repeating the last operation. Dr. Chakraverty takes referrals and second opinions for troubled fractures, and the first step is always the same: original X-rays, operative notes and an honest reassessment.
No — many heal well in a cast if the fragments sit acceptably. Surgery is for displaced, unstable or joint-involving fractures, or where early movement matters most.
Typically six to twelve weeks for adult fractures, with wide variation. Union is confirmed on X-ray and examination, not by the calendar.
A fracture that has stopped healing — from instability, poor blood supply, infection, smoking or diabetes. Most can be brought to heal once the cause is corrected.
Because bed rest is more dangerous than surgery for an older person. Early fixation or replacement gets them sitting and standing within days.
Yes — persistent pain, deformity, loosening implants or an unsettled wound all warrant review with your original X-rays and notes.
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