Hip Fractures Among the Elderly

When you place your loved one in a nursing home, you entrust a staff of people to care for your family member as you would yourself. So when an injury results, you may have abuse and neglect questions that concern the practices and facility maintenance that may have led to such an injury. One of those injuries, hip fractures, can shorten lives and make your loved one’s remaining days more complicated and painful.

A personal injury attorney, like Dr. Gene Cullan or Dr. Sam Cullan who are both doctors, as well as Arizona nursing home abuse attorneys, understand the legal ramifications of your case while providing much understanding about the medical conditions that result.

Breaking Hip Fractures into Two Types

Hip fractures are one of the most common injuries from which the elderly suffer. These types of injuries are separated into two types of fractures that include:

• Femoral Neck Fractures – occurs when the ball of the ball-and-socket hip joint is fractured off the femur
• Intertrochanteric Hip Fractures – this type of fracture occurs below the femoral neck fracture

Treatments for Hip Fractures

While both types of hip fractures require surgical treatment, Femoral Neck Fractures are, by far, the worse of the two types of hip fractures. Depending upon the age of the patient and the degree of displacement of the Femoral Neck Fracture, a surgeon will consider the following options:

• Hip Pinning – accomplished by placing several screws across the fractured bone. Only patients that have a fracture that is minimally displaced and well aligned, are candidates for hip pinning.
• Hip Hemiarthroplasty – considered to be a half of a hip replacement. Surgeons will remove the ball of the ball-and-socket joint and replace it with a metal prosthesis.

For Intertrochanteric Hip Fractures, a surgeon will use a metal plate and screws to treat this type of fracture. The patient is then positioned in a manner that realigns the bone. Once aligned, an incision is made in the outer thigh where the surgeon will insert a metal plate that is secured with several small screws.

If you or your loved one has suffered a hip fracture due to nursing home neglect or abuse, please contact an Arizona nursing home attorney from Cullan & Cullan today. You’ll be represented by attorneys who are also doctors and whose unique qualifications help them to understand your medical issues.