Surgical treatment of undisplaced femoral neck fractures in the elderly

The study was a retrospective evaluation and comparison. Eighty-four elderly patients (> 60 years) with undisplaced intracapsular femoral neck fractures were treated with osteosynthesis with either dynamic hip screws (DHS) or multiple cannulated screws (MCS). The Singh index was used to evaluate bone quality. All patients were followed up retrospectively for at least 12 months. The clinical results were compared between the DHS and MCS groups. Both groups were similar in respect of injury mechanisms, mean Singh index, injury-surgery interval, gender and age (all p values ≥ 0.29). The MCS group had significantly smaller wound incisions, less haemoglobin level drops, lower blood transfusion rates and shorter hospital stays than the DHS group (all p values ≤ 0.008). However, the DHS group had a higher rate of overall success when compared to the MCS group (97.5% versus 84.1%, p=0.04). In conclusion, although DHS fixation requires a larger skin incision and more soft tissue dissection, its use in elderly patients with osteoporosis is recommended due to simple, efficacy and high overall success rate.