How is a hip fracture treated?

Question

Surely they don't put a cast on, so what do they do?

Answer 1

Fractures of the hip are treated by internal fixation, the type of surgery depends on the fracture and the age of the patient. This may involve just pinning the head of the femur but It may be necessary to use both an artificial head of femur and an artificial socket.

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Answer 2

The hip is composed of a ball and socket joint. The blood supply to the ball and to the socket are interdependent. That means when one side is disrupted(fractured) it can cause no blood flow to both sides.

This injury used to mean a slow death because you couldn't walk and as the blood supply to either the ball or socket or both decreased the bones ended up becoming gangrenous.

These days the orthopedic surgeon opens up your hip and takes off the ball(the entire top of your femur) and takes out the socket and replaces them with new parts. This surgery works well and people are up walking again in no time. This has saved countless lives.