Predictors of early failure in young patients with displaced femoral neck fractures

Stephen Gardner; Michael J Weaver; Seth Jerabek; Edward Rodriguez; Mark Vrahas; Mitchel Harris

doi:10.1016/j.jor.2014.01.001

Predictors of early failure in young patients with displaced femoral neck fractures

J Orthop. 2014 Feb 7;12(2):75-80. doi: 10.1016/j.jor.2014.01.001. eCollection 2015 Jun.

Authors

Stephen Gardner¹, Michael J Weaver², Seth Jerabek³, Edward Rodriguez⁴, Mark Vrahas⁵, Mitchel Harris²

Affiliations

¹ Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Foundation, Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Orthopedics, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA.
⁴ Department of Orthopedics, Beth Isreal Deaconess Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Orthopaedics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

Introduction: This study compares early failure rates of sliding hip screw (SHS) and cannulated screw (CS) constructs in young patients.

Methods: Patients <60 years of age, with displaced femoral neck fractures treated with CS or SHS fixation were included. Primary outcome was failure within 6 months.

Results: One patient (3%) with SHS fixation and 6 patients (21%) with CS fixation failed within 6 months (P = 0.04). Regression analysis demonstrated type of fixation (P = 0.005) and reduction quality (P = 0.04) are independent predictors of early failure.

Conclusions: SHS constructs demonstrate a significantly lower short-term failure rate than CS constructs.

Keywords: Complications; Femoral neck fracture; Predictors of failure; Young patients.