[Geometry of the hip joint: methodology and guidelines]

Abstract

An hip fracture is an significant personal, family and health issue of people older than 65 years. In the first year of the fracture up to 30% of the injured die and about 50% of them never regain their formal degree of independence in fulfilling day-to-day activities. Estimations are that throughout 30 years in the world there will be around 6 million hip fractures per year which is about four times the todays amount. Todays predictions of hip fractures based on the hip geometry have shown us that the hip geometry is an independent variable of the bone mineral density. The hip geometry is more resistant to the effect of various factors than the bone mineral density and the changes throu life are a lot slower. The uniqueness and the sensitivity of the hip geometry in predicting a fracture is high and acceptable in research results of most authors. In this review we present the previous relevant knowledge about the measures and factors which determines the hip geometry and the accepted amount of pictorial methods of hip display. We have compared the methodology and the patients of eleven randomly picked writings on predicting hip fracture based on the hip geometry. We highlight the need of further refinement of the methodology and the more balanced selection of patients for a greater conformity in future writings. The hip geometry has shown it self as an useful diagnostical instrument but there is still more room for its improvement.