Part 2 - Brad's Surgery- The Skin Graft

Removing bandages after 5 days and viewing the progress of the skin graft healing and applying bandages/dressings again. Post acute compartment syndrome surgery

A day at Whistler snowboarding induced acute compartment surgery.

This is the removal of the bandages after surgery; surgery was on 15-Apr-2007.

I edited this video down to approximately 6 minutes but it took well over an hour to remove these bandages and yes I was on enough pain killers to numb a field of cattle.

Wikipedia says "Compartment syndrome is an acute medical problem following injury or surgery in which increased pressure (usually caused by inflammation) within a confined space (fascial compartment) in the body impairs blood supply, leading to nerve damage and muscle death without prompt treatment."

The unusual part was that I had no injury other than a real intense day of snowboarding in Whistler. No doubt I over did it and it was the first time out that year, but for it to happen without some kind of trauma is very unusual.

I guess I am prone to compartment syndrome (this was my forth time having this kind of surgery) because how I am built, I am an ex-motocrosser and built up large amounts of muscles in my forearms and calf areas in areas that are not too large, throw in some strange inflammation process that makes my muscles get large quickly and you have a good recipe for getting this unusual from of compartment syndrome.

What you see in the video is a simple surgical incision. They simply cut my leg wide open to release the pressure in the compartment. My muscles were so huge that it stretched the incision area so wide that it looks like a huge chunk of skin was removed but in fact there was nothing cut out at all, only the skin and fascia compartment was cut, but no muscles or tendons. The wound was left open like that for about a week and a half then a skin graft was done to grow new skin over the area. I was in the hospital for over a month.

Almost 7 months later now and it has healed to the point that I never think about it, the scar is still there and it's always a great conversation piece.

I just bought my ski pass for this winter so I guess I am all better now. But it was a long, tough, painful process and in the back of my head I always remind myself how lucky I am to be able to walk.

Embedded Video/Posted for educational purposes only - Source: YouTube