Review of a single contemporary femoral neck fracture fixation method in young patients

Abstract

An intracapsular femoral neck fracture in a young patient is a rare and difficult injury to manage. The occurrence of complications following fixation is multifactorial. Initial displacement and timing and accuracy of reduction are the key factors affecting outcome. The severities of the trauma to the hip and the impact of the intracapsular hematoma also play a role, the importance of which remains poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the high incidence of femoral neck fractures treated in our institution over a 7-month period, to record the long-term outcome of these patients, all of whom were treated with contemporary methods of internal fixation, and to highlight the reasons for this injury being termed an "orthopedic emergency" and its differences from the same injury in the elderly population. We performed a retrospective analysis of 12 cases of intracapsular femur neck fracture in patients younger than 50 years treated over 7 months in a regional trauma center. All patients underwent satisfactory reduction and fixation. Nine of the 12 patients had a good outcome at a mean follow-up of 29 months. One patient developed a nonunion of the femoral head requiring total hip arthroplasty, one developed avascular necrosis of the femoral head, and one developed partial avascular necrosis. This compares favorably with other studies.