Ca. Guanche et al., THE USE OF MRI IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF OCCULT HIP-FRACTURES IN THE ELDERLY - A PRELIMINARY REVIEW, Orthopedics, 17(4), 1994, pp. 327-330
Establishing the diagnosis of a non-displaced hip fracture in an elder
ly patient can be a prolonged and costly procedure, involving hospital
admission, several days of bed rest, and a bone scan 3 to 5 days late
r. The authors evaluated 10 hips in 10 patients with a questionable di
agnosis of non-displaced hip fracture. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI
) soon after admission revealed four patients with acute hip fractures
who were subsequently treated. The other six patients, whose scans we
re negative for either femoral neck or intertrochanteric fractures, we
re mobilized. The authors show that, through the use of an immediate M
RI study of a questionable hip fracture, the prolonged recumbency and
inherent costs associated with awaiting a positive bone scan can be av
oided.