I broke my leg in a bad fall down the stairs. The doctor put me in a cast and told me I could put a small amount of weight on it--I can touch my big toe to the ground. I'm a little worried about doing even this much. Will it still heal with this much pressure?

Many studies have shown that early loading of bone breaks or fractures actually helps the bone heal. This type of pressure causes tiny amounts of motion at the fracture site and stimulates bone growth.

The trick is to put just enough weight on the toe or foot to encourage bone growth without slowing down healing. If you do use too much weight, the fracture will still heal. It just takes longer.

Reference:

H. V. Dabke, MS, FRCS, et al. How Accurate is Partial Weightbearing? In Clinical
Orthopaedics and Related Research. April 2004. Vol. 421. Pp. 282-286.

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I broke my leg in a bad fall down the stairs. The doctor put me in a cast and told me I could put a small amount of weight on it--I can touch my big toe to the ground. I'm a little worried about doing even this much. Will it still heal with this much pressure?