POSTOPERATIVE WEIGHT-BEARING AFTER A FRACTURE OF THE FEMORAL-NECK OR AN INTERTROCHANTERIC FRACTURE

Sixty patients who had had operative treatment of a fracture of the fe moral neck or an intertrochanteric fracture were allowed to bear weigh t as tolerated on the injured limb, The average age was seventy-seven Scars, Computerized gait-testing was performed at one, two, three, six , and twelve weeks postoperatively to quantify weight-bearing, For the purpose of analysis, the patients were divided into three groups acco rding to whether they had internal fixation of a stable fracture, inte rnal fixation of an unstable fracture, or a primary hemiarthroplasty. Thirty-two patients completed the entire twelve-week study. The averag e amount of weight that these patients placed on the injured limb inn cased progressively with time, The average load supported by the injur ed limb was 51 per cent that of the uninjured limb at one week, and it gradually increased to 87 per cent at twelve weeks, During file first three weeks, tile patients who had had internal fixation bore substan tially less weight than those who had had a hemiarthroplasty, By six w eeks, we could detect no significant differences, with the numbers ava ilable, among the groups with regard to weight-bearing or other measur ed gait parameters, We concluded that elderly patients who are allowed to bear weight as tolerated after operative treatment of a fracture o f the femoral neck or an intertrochanteric fracture appear to voluntar ily limit loading of the injured limb.