Hip Joint Fracture: Diagnosis, Treatment & Prevention

Hip joint fractures can cause severe pain, a loss of motion and muscle weakness. Learn about the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options for hip fractures. 

Hip Joint fracture

There are three types of Hip Joint Fractures :

1. Femoral neck fractures 

2. Intertrochanteric fractures

3. Subtrochanteric fractures 

1. Femoral neck fractures  : Female are more prone to femoral neck fractures compared to men.

Around 63.3  femoral  fractures occur in female and 27.7  femoral  fractures occur in male for 1 lakh person per year.

Femoral neck fracture happens inside the hip joint so it falls under intracapsular fracture.

Fractures are classified as 

     1. Stable fractures

     MRI scanning may be required ,as most likely these stable fractures cannot be detected by radiographs.

     2. Unstable fractures  

     Unstable fractures can be seen in plain radiographs and MRI scanning is not required.

2. Intertrochanteric fractures

Intertrochanteric fractures falls under extracapsular fracture as these fractures outside the hip joint.

63  Intertrochanteric fractures occur in female and 34  fractures occur in male for 1 lakh person per year.

Intertrochanteric fractures falls under two categories: 

Stable  Intertrochanteric fractures : 

If femur breaks into two or three parts then it is Stable Intertrochanteric fractures category.

Unstable Intertrochanteric fractures : 

If femur is breaks  into four parts or fracture occurs in reverse oblique pattern then it is Unstable Intertrochanteric fractures.

3. Subtrochanteric fractures 

Subtrochanteric fractures are less common than the other two fractures (femoral neck fractures and intertrochanteric fractures)

Hip joint fracture classification : 

1.  Incomplete fractures

2. Complete fractures 

3. Partially displaced fractures

4. Completely displaced fractures