I can do all the things I love again thanks to my new wrist

10:00am Saturday 13th March 2010

By Katy Islip

A FATHER who endured more than 35 years of problems after breaking his wrist is hoping to finally say goodbye to pain thanks to a pioneering type of joint replacement.

Robert Johnson, 56, broke his right wrist in 1973 while playing football and has suffered after-effects ever since, including developing osteoarthritis in his damaged joint.

Now he is hoping recurrent breaks, pain and loss of mobility are a thing of the past after undergoing a total wrist replacement operation.

Mr Johnson said: “I was playing football on a frozen pitch and went up for a header, came down and landed on my arm.

“Afterwards, I could never move my wrist as well and couldn’t do things like push ups, because it didn’t bend like it used to before.

“Since then, I’ve broken it on and off, just by doing things like digging and heavy lifting. It even went once while I was doing the vacuuming.

The final straw came in October, when Mr Johnson, of Derbydale, Ashingdon, broke his wrist again, while painting his garden fence.

“I first went to Southend Hospital to get a cast, then had it strapped up, but that didn’t work so I was back in plaster.”

The dad-of-two was referred to see Greg Packer, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Spire Wellesley private hospital, in Eastern Avenue, Southend, who told him the problems he had experienced were common for the type of injury he had originally sustained.

Following a procedure in which a camera is passed into the body to examine the joints, Mr Johnson was faced with a decision about his future treatment.

He said: “I went back in January for the results and Mr Packer said I had one major break, two minor ones and also osteoarthritis, which I wasn’t too happy about.

“Mr Packer said there wasn’t much they could do and there were only two options.

“One was to fuse the bones in my wrist together so it wouldn’t move at all, which would cure the pain, but would leave me only able to move my fingers.

“The second thing he mentioned was arthroplasty, which is a wrist replacement.

“I’d never heard of it before. I’d heard about knee and hip replacements, but never wrists.”

Mr Johnson, who works for Essex and Suffolk Water, decided to go for it and on February 26 underwent the hour-long, £10,950 procedure as an NHS patient at the Spire Wellesley.

Keeping him company in plaster has been younger son Steven, 24, who recently broke three bones in his foot, also playing football.

Now Mr Johnson is well on the road to recovery and is hoping to be able to help wife Elaine and elder son Christopher, 26, care for Steven.

He said: “I am still in a half cast to keep my wrist immobile while it heals, and I am doing exercises to help it.

“It is great to think it will be fixed. People at work have been calling me the Bionic Man.

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to do all the things I love to do, but without the pain, which will be wonderful.”

Although wrist replacement surgery has been carried out in the UK for several years, Mr Johnson is one of the first patients in the UK to undergo a maestro replacement, which is an advanced type of joint designed to improve the range of motion and relieve pain.

The maestro replacement is only carried out at five centres across the UK, including Spire Wellesley.

Mr Packer helped to introduce the procedure to the UK two years ago, and has subsequently performed 18 operations, mainly to help osteoarthritis sufferers.

He explained: “The maestro total wrist replacement procedure replaces fusion surgery to help patients regain mobility in their wrists.

“Unlike hips, which are simple ball and socket joints, the wrist is very complex because it is made up of a series of joints.

“In other types of wrist replacement the polyethylene part of the joint replacement was usually put on to the convex part of the joint.

“The maestro replacement reverses this process, with the plastic now placed on the concave surface of the joint, which should help to provide stability and flexibility.”