Duration of pain
A fracture of the neck of the femur is often associated with considerable pain. The operation itself also usually causes considerable pain. As a rule, a significant improvement in pain occurs after a few weeks. Adequate pain therapy and early mobilization with supportive physiotherapy are supportive.
Duration of rehabilitation
The medical rehabilitation of the femoral neck fracture begins immediately after the operative treatment of the fracture and usually lasts three weeks. An extension to four weeks can be requested additionally. The follow-up treatment is carried out on an outpatient, inpatient or mobile basis and depends on the individual needs of the patient.
It always includes physiotherapy exercises. The aim of these exercises is to strengthen the muscles and improve mobility and coordination. Mobile rehabilitation enables the patient to be treated in their own four walls.
It comprises two exercise units per day, each lasting 45 minutes over a period of 20 days. If necessary, stays in rehabilitation centers are used, which usually also last 20 days. Some centers specialize in the post-operative treatment of elderly people and offer a high degree of nursing support. and rehabilitation after the installation of a hip prosthesis
Duration of hospital stay
The length of hospital stay following surgical treatment is between 10 and 14 days. During this period, the focus is on mobilization, initially with crutches.
Duration of incapacity to work
Depending on the type of activity, the duration of the incapacity to work is approximately 8 to 12 weeks. If hip head surgery is performed to preserve the hip head, the hip joint must be relieved of pressure over a period of 6 to 12 weeks. However, even after this period, healing is not completely complete and the risk of a new fracture is increased.
Crutches support sufficient relief of the joint. Since they are an obstacle, especially in everyday work, an inability to work for several months is not uncommon. The healing of the femoral neck fracture depends mainly on the predominant bone substance.Thus, one of the biggest problems in the healing process is osteoporosis, which affects women in particular.
Since the bone becomes unstable and porous due to osteoporosis, a hip head preserving surgical therapy is not possible in such a case. The screws would not hold in the porous bone. Therefore, a quick restoration of mobility would be very unlikely.
However, in order to minimize postoperative complications, early mobilization is the most important goal in the treatment of femoral neck fractures. The age of the patient plays a decisive role with regard to the duration of the healing process:The duration of the healing process after a fracture of the femoral neck cannot be determined in general, but varies greatly from one individual to another. Apart from age, it depends above all on the concomitant diseases, the patient’s general physical condition, the results of the operation and the effective follow-up treatment.
- Most of the affected patients are relatively old and suffer from concomitant diseases, which significantly worsen the healing process after the operation due to the occurrence of serious complications. For example, the risk of post-operative thrombosis with pulmonary embolism, heart complications or wound healing disorders increases significantly. All these complications delay healing and significantly increase mortality after a fracture of the femoral neck.
For this reason, the risk of mortality is relatively high at approximately 6%. However, if an artificial hip is implanted directly, patients can be mobilized very early on with appropriate pain therapy. If the hospital treatment is followed by a long-term and consistent physiotherapy, the lethality rate decreases massively.
Ideally, older patients can be referred to rehabilitation directly after hospital treatment. In rare cases, the prosthesis stem may break out of the bone after an artificial hip joint replacement. In this case a new operation must be performed. This massively delays the healing period and makes postoperative mobilization more difficult.
- Young and otherwise healthy patients, on the other hand, have a very good chance of healing, as the bone is still stable and dense and thus the fracture ends heal much better. Furthermore, younger patients have significantly fewer concomitant diseases and thus a much lower risk of dying from postoperative complications.
