Monday, February 15, 2010

Found Down

A 77 year old woman was found down by her neighbor and brought in complaining of hip pain. She is confused and cannot give a good history. On exam, the right leg is shortened and externally rotated. There is bruising and local tenderness present, but no pelvic or distal femoral tenderness. The x-ray is shown below.

Challenge: What's the diagnosis?

Image is in the public domain.

2 comments:

sid said...

intertrochanteric fracture of the hip?

Craig said...

wow! a budding radiologist!
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Found Down

This is an intertrochanteric fracture of the hip. Hip fractures are increasingly common in elderly patients due to osteoporosis, increased falls secondary to poorer balance, medication side effects, and difficulty getting around environmental hazards. Types of hip fractures include femoral head and neck fractures (intracapsular, risk of avascular necrosis of the femoral head) and intertrochanteric and subtrochanteric fractures (extracapsular).

Sources: UpToDate; Wikipedia.