Open AccessOccult femoral neck fractures
Author(s) -
Valentinas Uvarovas,
Andrius Vaitiekus,
Igoris Šatkauskas
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
lietuvos chirurgija
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1648-9942
pISSN - 1392-0995
DOI - 10.15388/lietchirur.2014.5113
Subject(s) - occult , medicine , femoral neck , displacement (psychology) , radiography , radiology , incidence (geometry) , surgery , osteoporosis , psychology , physics , alternative medicine , pathology , optics , psychotherapist
Occult femoral neck fractures are becoming an urgent problem for aging population. In general the term “occult fracture” is used to denote fractures which are occult on plain radiographs, but found to be present on other imaging modalities or intra-operatively. Estimated incidence of occult femoral neck fracture is 2 to 10 per cent according to the literature. There is a risk of secondary fracture displacement, and other related complications in case of late diagnosis of these fractures. Timely diagnosis of these fractures in elderly patients improves treatment outcomes, reduces invalidity risk. The higher mortality rate is associated with well diagnosed femoral neck fractures whose treatment was delayed for reasons other than missing X-ray evidence of a fracture.