There are different types of hip fractures, therefore the treatments used will be different depending on the type. There are common symptoms to all fractures, some of them are:

• Severe pain in the groin area.
• Immobility in the area.
• Shortening of the affected side leg relative to the other.
• In some cases, bruises, thigh deformity and swelling appear in the area.

Types of Hip Fractures

• Femoral head fracture: in this case, the fracture occurs in the femoral head. They are very rare lesions. They usually occur in patients over 50 years of age, and the most common treatment is osteosynthesis (joining the bones with screws).
• Femoral neck fractures: This type of injury affects the neck of the femur. They are frequent and associated with old age. The most common cause is severe trauma (traffic accidents, falls from a great height...). The most common treatment is osteosynthesis with screws or arthroplasty, which would mean placing a partial or total prosthesis.
• Intertrochanteric fractures: This injury is located between the greater and lesser trochanters, and is common in the elderly. The surgical intervention consists of joining the bone fragments through a nail or plate with screws.
• Subtrochanteric (ST) femur fractures: This is the less frequent fracture of the hip. There are two possible treatments for this type of fracture: open surgery to insert a plate and screws, or a minimally invasive technique with intramedullary nails.

The team led by Dr. Ghassan Elgeadi has doctors who are specialists in hip arthroscopy. Thanks to this minimally invasive technique, the patient's recovery after a hip operation is faster and requires less rest period.  

Hip fracture surgery is performed to repair breaks that affect the upper part of the femur, located at the level of the thigh.Hip fractures are usually caused by falls in elderly people, due to wear and tear on bones and cartilage.

In the majority of patients, the treatment for hip fracture is surgical intervention and the operation time varies depending on the type of surgery that is performed.

In cases of elderly patients, who have difficulty walking before the operation, a conservative treatment can be chosen, avoiding surgery. Depending on the characteristics of the rupture, different surgical techniques will be used.

Hip Arthroscopy (Hip Endoscopy/ hip scope):

Whenever possible, a hip arthroscopy or endoscopy will be performed, which consists of minimally invasive surgery, with a duration of 90 minutes. This technique makes it possible to study and treat lesions before they worsen. This type of operation is performed by Doctor Ghassan Elgeadi and his team of specialists in hip arthroscopy and endoscopy in Madrid.

The most commonly treated pathologies using these techniques are septic arthritis, femoroacetabular impingement, chondrocyte implants, cartilage injuries, and labral tear.

Total Hip Replacement (Total Hip Arthroplasty)

Hip arthroplasty consists of the implantation of an artificial prosthesis, which allows the performance of certain movements. This operation must be carried out by a specialist in hip arthroplasty.

The orthopedic specialist in hip arthroplasty makes a cut in the area of action that allows the bone to be clearly observed. Later, a hole will be made in the bone, where the graft will be made and will weld the bones to the prosthesis. The duration of the intervention is usually approximately one or two hours.

In the case of osteosynthesis, the incision is smaller than in prosthetic surgery and special screws, nails and/or plates are placed to restore stability to the fractured bones.

The operation and types of hip replacements vary depending on the characteristics of the patient's injury. In the case of hip replacement, there are different options depending on the type of breakage that has occurred:

• Total Hip Replacement: the femoral head articulates with the acetabular insert (belonging to the socket area (acetabulum)). This method is used in cases where the patient suffers from hip wear and osteoarthritis.
• Partial Hip Replacement: The femoral head articulates directly against the pelvis. It is used in fracture cases of people with little activity. Unlike the total one, only the femoral head is replaced, leaving the pelvic acetabular cavity intact.
• Revision Total Hip Replacement: it is placed to replace another prosthesis that is causing complications.

Cementless Total Hip Replacement (THR): There are two ways to fix the prosthesis implantation to the bone: by using a biological cement (cemented prostheses), or by pressure fixation (cementless prostheses). In patients with degenerative quality diseases, cemented prostheses are usually chosen. If the bone has a good structure, cementless prostheses will be used.  

The fissure consists of an incomplete fracture of the bone that does not completely separate the parts of it.

The recovery procedure is the same but it does not require immobilization as strict as in the case of rupture.

The most common types are longitudinal crack propagation and fissures. The hip specialist doctor will assess the extent of the injury, studying whether it is a bruise, a fracture or a complete tear. Fissures are common injuries in elderly people and are usually caused by trauma.

On many occasions, the most appropriate option to perform an MRI of the hip is to perform an arthro-resonance. Since, it allows a contrast study to be done through a joint puncture in which a liquid is injected, which helps to diagnose pathologies or hip fractures.

This technique is used by the best hip orthopedic surgeons since it is a complex and semi-invasive process.

After the injection process, the patient is immediately transferred to the MRI unit to prevent the contrast liquid from being reabsorbed.

The most common arthroresonance analysis is used for the evaluation of the acetabular labrum, especially in patients with suspected femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) or patients with groin pain.