ICYMI: Pinning of Valgus-impacted Femoral Neck Fractures May Be the Wrong Approach
Major complications and reoperations are dismayingly common in what should be the "easy ones."
What’s the Claim?
There’s no such thing as a chip shot: Among patients treated for valgus-impacted femoral neck fractures with percutaneous screws, 15% underwent reoperation, and 17% had major complications, defined as those resulting in more surgery, symptomatic AVN, loss of fixation, or nonunion (36 such complications in 33 patients). These fairly dismal results were reported at short term — less than two years — suggesting that things may even be worse than that.
