Every day in the column "Daily ills", Doctor Jimmy Mohamed takes stock of an illness or a health problem.

This Wednesday, he is interested in the fracture of the neck of the femur, which mainly affects the elderly, more prone to loss of balance or falls, and explains how to avoid it.

In the section "the evils of everyday life" in Sans Rendez-vous, doctor Jimmy Mohamed takes stock every day on these little everyday ailments that can rot life for some time.

This Wednesday, he is interested in the fracture of the neck of the femur, generally linked to a fall, and explains to us how to treat it, but especially how to avoid it.

Because this injury mainly affects the elderly, and can sometimes lead to an irreversible loss of autonomy, which leads to the death of one in four patients.

“The femur is the skeleton of the thigh. At the top end you have the head of the femur that articulates over the pelvis and is connected to the body of the femur through the neck. And a fracture, well that's when this collar is broken It is a very frequent accident, which happens to 50,000 people each year, mostly women, aged 75 or over.

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To fracture the neck of the femur, falling from its height may be enough.

When you have a road accident, you can break your femoral neck.

But we realized that after 50 or 60 years, osteoporosis develops.

And this osteoporosis will decrease bone density and lead to demineralization.

That is to say, the bone will be less solid, and the slightest drop from its height, even at home, is enough. "

An almost compulsory operation 

"Regarding the pain, impossible to miss a fracture of the neck of the femur. Once it is broken, you cannot walk or even get up after the fall. And often, when you look at the leg of the patient, it will be externally rotated and shortened a little, so straight away, even before the X-ray, we can know if there is a fracture and the diagnosis is fairly simple.

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Faced with a fracture of the neck of the femur, the treatment is surgical and it is most often necessary to operate.

It is even a surgical emergency because we know that the goal of the game after such an operation is to get up as quickly as possible.

Because casually, one year after surgery, one in four patients will die from this fracture.

Not because of the fracture itself, but because of the loss of autonomy and the slip syndrome that will occur later.

So in the end, it's not just a simple fracture. "

Avoid over-medication in the elderly

"The best treatment is therefore first of all prevention, namely to fight against osteoporosis by performing bone densitometry, and then to fight against anything that can cause the elderly to fall. For example, remove carpets and chairs lying around anywhere, the chairs put in the wrong place, the wires or the toilet seat which is too low. And above all, we must fight against balance disorders by being careful of over-medication. who take a lot of treatments are more at risk of falling than others. "