There are several types of Hip fractures.

Femoral Head/Neck Fractures/Stress fractures

Slipped capital femoral epiphysis; Is a condition that occurs in teenagers where the ball at the head of the femur slips off the neck of the bone.

Hip Avascular Necrosis: The micro stress fractures at the head of the femur disturbs the microcirculation leading to a condition called Osteonecrosis

Perthe’s disease: Is rare childhood condition that disturbs the vascular blood supply to the head of the femur.

Mechanism of Dysfunction

The predisposing factors for the development of this condition began with a misalignment dysfunction at the pelvis/hip complex, which overtime causes  the  soft tissue ligamentous, muscle and cartilage to become overloaded and compromised allowing the biomechanical stress to gradually reach the level of the bone and resulting in the  development of fractures.

Is important to note that for the bone to become injured, the previous defence mechanisms have to have failed to allow the biomechanical stress to damage the bone, therefore, the treatment care must aim to restore the health of the entire hip protective structures.

Assessment Protocol

The entire lower extremity biomechanical chain must be evaluated as part of the pelvic/hip analyses as per the neurological and mechanical influences of the spine, knee, and foot

Clinical assessment to identify the potential areas of the fractures, identify the key joint dysfunctions of the pelvic/hip that have contributed to this condition. Soft tissue analysis to pinpoint the level of irritation in all tissue layers. Check the level of vascularity.

X-ray analysis

Anterior – Posterior (AP) and Lateral X-ray Pelvic/Hip views are essential to analyse the level and direction of the different patterns of misalignments

MRI

Hip MRI is essential for visualizing the extent of injury on the muscle/tendon,  ligaments, cartilage and bone layers.

Locate the exact injury point; Allows the treatment to be more specific during the application of the treatment modalities

Identify the extent of tissue damage and the presence of scar tissue; Provides valuable information regarding prognosis and the application of friction soft tissue modalities to aid on scar tissue removal.

Evaluate the fracture site

Treatment protocol

The treatment care should aim to restore the Pelvic and hip alignment, the soft tissue muscles/tendon and ligamentous health as well as stimulating and remodelling the cartilage growth.

Specific adjustments of key bones of the Pelvic/hip complex followed by a rehabilitation regime to strengthen the entire soft tissue support of the Hip.

Fracture site must be healing prior to correcting the misalignments

Soft tissue and cartilage healing protocol

Application of Low-level Laser and PEMF directly over the injured tissues to aid on the cellular level of healing as well as improving the microcirculation for the area.

Friction soft tissue therapy helps to reduce dysfunctional scar tissue

Specific stretches and strengthening to improve the resilient of the soft tissue support

Specific selected essential oil application to enhance healing

Dry Needling to promotes blood flow and enhance the soft tissue and cartilage healing.

Depending on the level injury and chronicity, a minimum of 6 weeks up to 12 weeks of treatment care may be necessary to resolve this condition.