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Acetabular Fractures / Pelvic Fractures
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Acetabular fractures /Pelvis fracture
acetabular fractures is a break in the socket portion of the “ball-and-socket” hip joint. The hip is one of the body’s largest joints.
It is a “ball-and-socket” joint. The socket is formed by the acetabulum, which is part of the pelvis. The ball is the femoral head, which is the upper end of the femur (thighbone).
Acetabular fractures vary. The bone can break straight across the socket or shatter into many pieces. When the acetabulum is fractured, the femoral head may no longer fit firmly into the socket, and the cartilage surface of both bones may be damaged.
If the joint remains irregular or unstable, ongoing cartilage damage to the surfaces may lead to arthritis.
Causes of Acetabular Fractures
An acetabular fracture results when a force drives the head of the femur against the acetabulum. This force can be transmitted from the knee (such as hitting the knee against the dashboard in a head-on car collision) or from the side (such as falling directly onto the hip).
Depending upon the direction of the force, the head of the femur is sometimes pushed out of the hip socket, an injury called hip dislocation.
When the fracture is caused by high-energy impact, patients often experience extensive bleeding and have other serious injuries that require urgent attention.
Acetabular fractures are sometimes caused by weak or insufficient bone. This is most common in older patients whose bones have become weakened by osteoporosis.
Signs & Symptoms of Acetabular Fractures
Signs of an acetabular hip fracture include hip pain, as well as pain in the groin and leg, swelling, muscle spasms, and difficulty putting weight on the affected leg (in most cases, patients cannot walk on the affected limb).
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People of all ages are vulnerable to these injuries. In addition, some elderly patients with fragile bones due to osteoporosis develop pelvic fractures and fractures of the acetabulum with a lower impact fall.
Diagnosis of Acetabular Fractures
If the fracture occurred in tandem with other significant injuries such as the head, chest or legs, for example in a high-energy impact such as an auto accident, a thorough examination to evaluate the injuries is usually conducted.
For acetabular fractures, a physician will generally take a full medical history, perform a physical examination and order X-rays and/or a CT scan to determine the extent and pattern of the fracture.
Compassionate treatment of acetabular fractures
Your doctor will consider the extent of damage to the cartilage in the joint, specific pattern of the fracture, the degree of instability in the hip and your overall health condition.
Treatment options are either surgical or nonsurgical. In either case, the goal is to realign the bones—a process called reduction.
Nonsurgical treatments are usually recommended for patients who may not be able to tolerate surgery because of medical problems, infections or osteoporosis, and/or patients who have not suffered joint displacement.
These patients are treated by a process known as closed reduction, which is realignment without surgery that is performed through manipulation.Other treatments include walking aids and medications to relieve pain.
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Surgical Treatment for Acetabular Fractures
Because acetabular fractures damage the cartilage surface of the bone, an important goal of surgery is to restore a smooth, gliding hip surface.
During the operation, your doctor will reconstruct the normal anatomy of the hip joint—aligning the bone fragments to restore the surface of the acetabulum, and fitting the femoral head into the hip socket.
The surgery to realign the bones is called an open reduction. The orthopaedic surgeon at NSOC makes an incision to directly manipulate the bone. After realigning the bones, either internal or external fixation is used to hold the bones in place while they heal.
Open reduction with internal fixation is especially common for patients with an acetabular fracture and displacement of the joint. In this procedure, the hip specialist in Kenya at NSOC aligns the bones as precisely as possible and then rigidly fixes them with plates and screws to prevent future displacement and allow for rehabilitation.