Kyle 's Journal

Kevin McCarthy  The wires that hold the two halves of the sternum together? My surgeon said they would be there forever. I'm not noticing them, but at only 2 weeks, I have a lot of other stuff to notice.

Robert Miller  I did hear of people having them removed. It's my understanding that in almost all cases they just stay there. After my second surgery I have a bump right where two ribs join. I suspect it's a wire. It got nicked and bled a couple of times but it doesn't really bother me and so I see no reason the remove it. I assume you do have a specific reason to remove them. Btw, you can easily see them on a chest x-ray. 

Grace Mason   Hi Kyle,
I am 8 months post surgery and I was having pain when breathing at about 2-3 months that was attributed to pleurisy after a pleural effusion I experienced at about 6-8 weeks. At 5 months I had a follow up CT and was told I have sternal non union. Now I am thinking the sternal non union was more likely the culprit of my discomfort in breathing. I requested rigid fixation when I had surgery and received the Sternal Blulock, so my sternum is stable, but I do still notice the more I do with my arms I still experience some soreness in my sternum, most noticeable upon deep breaths now. I was experiencing clicking, but to me it seemed to be in the base of my spine (at neck) rather than in my sternum, so I wasn't for sure if it was just radiating from the sternal non union or if that is related.
My surgeons office said I should not do anything that causes pain and wanted me to continue to be patient and restrict any twisting activity such as golf, kayaking, rowing...I am not using any additional binding on my sternum, but that may be because I have plates and screws. I imagine I will have a follow up CT at some point but don't have anything scheduled.

I believe typically they do not do anything if you are not in pain. If you have issues I believe an option is a second surgery to debride the bone add plates or sometimes just rewire after debridement. I haven't found a lot of information other than that myself but would be interested to learn more about how you progress and your doctor's recommendations in the future. 

Robert Miller  I didn't know what "sternal non union" is so I had to google it. It appears it's when the chest bone doesn't heal properly. But based on your message, the popping/cracking started to happen 8 months after surgery. After 3 months you are good to do a lot (swimming, skiing, etc) and after 6 months anything goes. So I would think that if it's indeed sternal non union, then you should have found such issue much earlier and not after 8 months later. But maybe your bones were never healing quite right and then you did something extreme after 8 months?! 

Obviously, I don't have any experience with sternal non union. However, after my second surgery, I put Christmas stuff away including a heavier box with a fake Christmas tree and doing a lot of other stuff (I put up a lot of light, incl. the roof). It's more lifting than what I should have done. After that, I did hear cracking noises when breathing. It kind of sounded like water in your lungs but it also seemed to come from the incision area. I did go to my cardiologist who did an x-ray that showed nothing.

Having said all that, assuming you didn't to anything different over the last 4 months or so, you should be fine. But get a second opinion.