Hip Fracture Surgery

Types of hip fracture surgery

The type of hip fracture repair surgery you may have generally depends on the location and severity of the fracture, whether the broken bones aren't properly aligned (displaced fracture), and your age and underlying health conditions.

The options include:

• Hip pinning with reduction – to line up the bones or internal fixation to stabilize the broken bones is common to repair hip fracture when the bones can be properly aligned. In reduction, the pieces of bone are moved back into position through very small incisions. Internal fixation involves stabilizing the broken bones with surgical screws, rods or plates. The surgical screws are inserted into the bone to hold it together while the fracture heals.
• Osteotomy – a surgical operation whereby a bone is cut to shorten, lengthen or change its alignment. It is sometimes performed to correct a hallux valgus, or to straighten a bone that has healed crookedly following a fracture. Osteotomy is one method to relieve pain in arthritis, although partial or total joint replacement in the older patient is more common.
• Partial or total hip replacement – your upper femur and the socket in your pelvic bone are replaced with prostheses. Total hip replacement may be a good option if arthritis or a prior injury has damaged your joint, affecting its function even before the fracture.

Your doctor may recommend partial or total hip replacement if the blood supply to the ball part of your hip joint was damaged during the fracture. That type of injury, which occurs most often in older people with femoral neck fractures, means the bone is less likely to heal properly.