Hip Problems

Hip Fractures

There are 2 main types of hip fractures. The type of fracture you have determines what the treatment will be and how well you are likely to do. We know that fractures just below the head of the femur do poorly when fixed and often require further operations and ultimately a hip replacement.

The reason for this is that there is poor blood supply to that area and therefore the fractures tend not to grow and the hip bone can die due to poor blood supply.

As most of these patients are reasonably frail, it is best not to expose them to multiple procedures and rather to “do the last operation first” and do a hip replacement as treatment.

Fractures lower down the femur tend to heal better as they have better blood supply and they are usually fixed using a nail and screw fixation system.