Ipsilateral femoral neck and shaft fractures

Abstract

Fractures of the femoral neck and femoral shaft are relatively common but are rare in combination. The reported incidence of a femoral neck fracture in the setting of a femoral shaft fracture is 1–9%, with the largest retrospective review to date reporting a 3% incidence [1–12]. These injuries commonly occur in young patients (average age, 34 years) [8, 13–18] and are a result of a high-energy mechanism such as a motor vehicle accident or fall from a height [2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 19, 20]. The incidence of ipsilateral fractures of the femoral neck and shaft is increasing due to the rising number of high-energy motor vehicle accidents, improved survivorship after high-energy accidents, and enhanced recognition of this injury pattern [9, 12, 13, 21]. Importantly, multi-system injuries have been reported to occur in between 73% and 100% of patients presenting with this injury [8, 9, 13–15, 22].