A Hip Fracture Can Damage the Joint Socket
I’m Ed Smith, a Hip Fracture Attorney in Sacramento. Hip fractures and dislocations have been studied extensively. As people age, their bones weaken and they are more prone to suffering fractures. One of the common locations is the hip and, recently, a case report was published showing that a fracture of a hip can fracture surrounding joint socket as well, called the acetabulum.
What is the Acetabulum?
The acetabulum is also called the hip socket and is the place where the femur inserts into the socket of the hip. The acetabulum helps to create a ball and socket joint with the femur that gives people the mobility that most people enjoy. A traumatic injury to the acetabulum can cause a bone fracture in this region. This injury can be accompanied by a fracture of the femur itself. Symptoms of a fracture in this spot include pain and an inability to bear weight on that leg. The diagnosis of most fractures of the hip and acetabulum are handled with a combination of x-rays and MRI scans. Treatment will depend on the severity of the injury.
A Patient Suffers Polytrauma
Medical experts recently published the case of a middle-aged patient who had suffered polytrauma. When this patient was first wheeled in, the immediate concern was to stabilize the patient. The physicians looked at the patient’s heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate to make sure that the patient was not in imminent danger. Once the situation was settled, the physicians got to work diagnosing the patient’s injuries. There was obviously something wrong with the patient’s hip based on the physical exam findings. The patient received imaging scans which demonstrated an unusual combination of a fracture and dislocation of the acetabulum as well as a fracture through the femur as well. Because this presentation was unusual, the physicians had to come up with a new treatment approach to put the patient’s leg and hip back together. The surgeons had to come up with a new approach to carefully screw the femur back together while performing a concomitant reduction of the leg back into the hip socket. To monitor the patient afterwards, the patient had careful follow-up with numerous physicians to ensure that the leg was healing properly. This case is important because it lays out a successful treatment approach for patients who suffer the same combination of injuries in the future.
Legal Help for Those in Need
While the treatment was a success, surgery is an expensive venture that can create financial stress for everyone involved. Someone who requires extensive surgery such as this can wind up with costly bills in the form of deductibles and coinsurance. Families could be left wondering how they are going to pay for such medical procedures. Individuals and families should know that there are legal advocates available who can help remove some of this stress. There could be options available for covering these costs that families didn’t even know about, which is why a consultation is important.
Watch Youtube Video ~ Hip Fractures, Types and fixation – Everything you need to know – by Dr. Nabil Ebraheim. The video below will give the reader a general overview of the various types of hip fractures and treatment options.
Contact an Experienced Hip Fracture Attorney in Sacramento
I’m Ed Smith, a Hip Fracture Attorney in Sacramento. Families who are dealing with a serious hip fracture should call me for free, friendly advice at (916) 921-6400 or (800) 404-5400.
The California chapter of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum has inducted me as a member. The trial lawyers in our group are the top legal professionals in the country. Our members have helped to win verdicts and assisted in settlements of cases worth greater than $1 Million dollars.
My verdicts and settlements are stored here.
Some ratings given by clients from earlier are viewable on Avvo, Yelp, and Google.
Image Attribution: The image on this page was found originally on Wikimedia Commons and is used with permission under CC BY SA, version 3.0
:dr [cs 659] cv