Need some advice about titanium

[paircon01]

I recently had to have a benign tumor removed from my head. The doctors had to remove part of my skull and used a titanium mesh patch to cover the area where the bone was removed. It is fairly small and is located in a non-critical area.

I work HV construction for a Northeastern power utility company. I am nearly healed from the surgery...which was successful. But I am wondering about the issue of the titanium patch and working. My doctors "don't think" it will be a problem. I wonder what my company is going to say.

Anyone have any experience or advice about this situation?

Charlie

[damn_encode]

I am just an ape but sometimes companies make a bigtodo about nothing.
The less they know about your health the better.
Unless you work hot and your brain bucket patch causes the current to fault to your skull through the air.....who knows it might happen.

I dont know anything really but I say go for it!

[thrasher]

There are two ways to look at this. I have known a lineman with a steel pin in his thigh and he never had any problem from it. I also knew a guy with a set of screws in his jaw and he said most of the time they didn't bother him. However if he was near a line carrying a LOT of amperage (400 +) he could hear the sixty cycle hum in his jaw.
Your best bet is find out if there is a teaching hospital somewhere near you and check with the doctors there. Teaching hospitals are usually the most up-to-date on information and oddball info.

[tramp67]

Don't hold me to it, but my guess is the mesh won't have any noticable effects. Sure, it is a conductive material, but it is under your skin and in intimate contact with your tissue, which is also conductive, ie. blood, cells, etc. Being a mesh, it also probably will be very much similar electrically to your tissue, verses a stainless steel pin or screw that may be used to repair broken bones.

[paircon01]

Quick "Thanks" and a tip of the hard hat to the responses. My step-dad also called the local state university's materal engineering school and spoke to a professor there who specializes in implants and bone repair. His take on the issue is that unless a situation occurs where an induced eddy current in the kilo- or megacycle range hits, there should be no issue at all.

Needless to say, I am a darn sight more at ease about the whole issue...

Charlie..

[electric squirrel]

I have a piece of mesh above my right eye holding my eyesocket together after an accident in 96' , back when I thought that being a pro rodeo cowboy was a viable career. I've worked lots of dist. and been near the 230kv , never even felt a tingle! E.S. :cool:

[BigClive]

Humans are so juicy and conductive inside that a bit of metal isn't going to make much of a difference.

The guy that could feel hum had a built in cable presence warning device. That could be handy. :)