Rapid Response

Hip Protectors and Hip Fractures

Authors: Ronald C. Hamdy, MD

Abstract

Hip fractures can result from trauma or from a mechanically weakened bone that is unable to sustain mechanical stress. In most older people, trauma is due to a fall after tripping over an object or just losing one’s balance. In older patients, both conditions (trauma and osteoporosis) often coexist, work synergistically and culminate in a fracture. The patient who fractures a hip after tripping or falling is said to have sustained a low trauma, fragility, or atraumatic fracture; that is, a fracture that occurs after the patient falls from a height that does not exceed the body height.

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References

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