Femur fracture after removal “nail” used for hip repair

Posted by maxma26 @maxma26, Jan 28, 2020

Hi. My name is Mary Anne. 7 1/2 months ago, I fell while hiking and broke my hip. The surgeon didn’t do a THR, just a repair. My bone hasn’t completely healed and after this much time, probably won’t. I have osteoporosis. It was recommended that I now have a THR, which has been scheduled. The surgeon will need to take out the long nail that is in my femur as well as my hip. When they put the THR in, the part that goes down my femur will need to be thicker which means that there’s a chance there could be a new fracture when it is inserted. Does anyone have experience with something like this? What happened and how are things now?

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Hi @maxma26 Welcome to Connect. I had a minimally displaced trochanteric fracture, L femur, in July. Nothing was done for mine, so I presume your fracture must have been more displaced.
I have not had experience with a THR following a hip fracture but I will be very interested in hearing more about it. I hope it goes well for you. It was the fracture that brought the fact that I have osteoporosis to my and my physician's attention. Osteoporosis is certainly not a good diagnosis to have. There is a lot more about it on Connect, primarily about the medications used for it. If you click on the little magnifying glass at the top of the page you can search for osteoporosis and discussions about the various treatments about it. There are many.
JK

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I'm not sure you understand. I fractured my femur at the neck and ball so in order to repair, a pin was placed in that area, and another one that went down to 6" above my knee. In order to do the THR, the surgeon has to remove both pins. The part of the new hip replacement goes down my femur in the same place the long pin did. The problem is that it's thicker and could cause a fracture my leg. I'm asking if anyone else who has osteoporosis experienced something like this.

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