What is the likelihood of a non-union?

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I think besides the obvious concerns of fat embolism and thrombosis, which is particularly rare, my main worry is getting a non-union and not consolidating.

I’ve had a look on here at previous posts, but I’m still confused about the actual likelihood of this problem happening.

 I know that not smoking, being young and healthy, and getting enough sleep are all factors that go into lessening the risk, but I’m really worried about either having a severely delayed union to the point that it would be well past a year until I could walk again, or worse still, a total non-union where you’d have to foot the bill for bone grafts coasting triple what you paid for the procedure, and may in the worse case never walk again.

I know risks must be accepted no matter what surgery you’re having, but how likely are any of these events to occur?

The other risk factors I mentioned above aside, I presume this only happens when someone has some sort of genetic risk for it?

I’ll likely be doing external frame tibias, if that makes a difference. Thanks!

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If your chosen clinic takes x rays of you regularly to monitor your callus formation, and at the same time keeping the lengthening speed to what is recommended, aka 1mm a day this shouldn't be a concern.

It can go to sh*t  if you go to a clinic that pushes to 1.5m from the get go, and rarely does x rays.

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From what I’ve seen on here it most often occurs in the fibulars when doing tibia lengthening, so I’d assume that doing tibias is a factor.

Lengthening speed is also a factor, the faster you go the higher the risk.