Hip and femoral fractures

The femur is the thigh bone. Its upper part, the femoral neck, connects it to the hip joint. In older people a simple fall is often enough to break it, because the bone is weakened by osteoporosis. In younger adults, femoral fractures usually follow road accidents or falls from a height. Treatment is almost always surgical. There are two main options. Internal fixation (osteosynthesis) holds the broken bone together with screws, a plate or a nail placed inside the femur, keeping the patient's own joint. Joint replacement replaces the head of the femur (partial hip replacement, or hemiarthroplasty) or the whole hip (total hip replacement) when the fracture is unlikely to heal well or the hip was already worn. The choice depends on the type of fracture, how displaced it is, and the patient's age and independence. In older people, surgery is carried out as soon as possible, ideally within 24 to 48 hours, because staying in bed exposes them to many complications. At Clinique Pasteur Tunis, patients are received in the emergency department and then cared for by the orthopaedic and anaesthetic teams. Getting out of bed early and rehabilitation are organised from the first days, together with the family.