Hip Fracture

Abstract

Hip fractures, particularly in older persons, result in problems that extend far beyond the orthopedic injury, with repercussions in the areas of medicine, rehabilitation, psychiatry, social work, and health care economics. There are over 250,000 hip fractures in the United States each year, with 90 percent occurring in patients over the age of 50 years.¹ With the aging of the population, the annual number of hip fractures is projected to double by the year 2040.^1,2 It is unlikely that efforts to prevent these injuries will have a substantial effect in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it is imperative that we . . .