Periprosthetic hip fracture

This fracture occurs around or near one of the components of the hip prosthesis and although it is not very common, it creates a very complicated situation for the patient.

They usually occur associated with trauma caused by falling from a height, and osteoporosis. There are some factors that make patients more prone to suffer a fracture such as a loosened implant, a component in an inappropriate position, “stress shielding”, which is the loss of bone density caused by a decrease in stress accustomed to the bone in an area due to the greater stress in a rigid fixation area of ​​the prosthesis, or the most common as already mentioned, Osteoporosis.

Patients with hip joint prostheses are usually elderly, a time in life in which multiple organs of the body have aged. The quality of vision, hearing, balance, and muscle strength are decreased, with which there is a high risk of falling, being the second most important factor as a cause. When a fracture occurs, the patient feels sudden pain in the hip or thigh, cannot move, and the pain usually increases when trying to move the leg, and, in many cases, the limb is deformed.

Handling: Prosthetic Revision Surgery of the Hip. In this intervention, it is possible in selected cases to fix the fracture if there is no loss of fixation of the prosthetic components, or poor bone quality. However, in most cases the prosthetic component that has become loose is replaced. The key to prevent this from happening again is to choose the new implant correctly, manage the present Osteoporosis, and carry out a strong intervention that seeks to prevent falls through nutritional optimization and rehabilitation with muscle strengthening.