Surprise: Pinning Fails in 15% of Valgus-impacted Hip Fractures
Findings from a case series might be worrisome enough to tip us toward arthroplasty
What’s the Claim?
It was just a case series, but — wow — these were supposed to be the easy ones. More than one in eight patients treated with internal fixation for a valgus-impacted femoral neck fracture without sagittal deformity underwent an unplanned reoperation, nearly all of which were for failures of fixation or symptomatic osteonecrosis (which occurred in 5% of patients treated). And all this trouble was seen at a median follow-up duration of less than two years.
