Hip fracture - serious injury. It is difficult to find a person who would never have been injured. There can be many reasons for contacting a traumatologist.
It must be understood that the femur is considered the largest of the tubular. Using a rounded head, it connects to the pelvis. To break this bone is quite difficult, but quite real. Treatment and rehabilitation will be difficult. How effective they will be is completely dependent on the first aid provided for a hip fracture. The person who volunteered to provide an emergency procedure must know its entire algorithm by heart. Otherwise, it can be harmful by its actions.
How does a fracture occur?
In order to break the femur, brute mechanical force is needed. There is a so-called percutaneous fracture. As a rule, it occurs due to traffic accidents. At risk are young people. An open fracture is considered dangerous. This is due to the fact that bones break through soft tissue.
With a fracture, sharp pain occurs. The limb is deformed, its length changes. Sometimes injury can occur with displacement. In this case, first aid for hip fracture should be performed according to special rules. Be sure to make an x-ray of the damaged limb in the hospital. Thanks to the picture, you can find out if the problem is only with the femur, or we are talking about a pelvic injury.
During treatment, you need to restore the length of the leg and its axis. In this case, the proper functioning of both the hip and knee joints should be achieved. As a rule, conservative treatment is not used at an older age. Doctors resort to it only if surgery and anesthesia are impossible.
Even with first aid for an open hip fracture, the healing and recovery processes will take a long time. The patient will have to spend several months in bed. Sometimes after removal of gypsum, patients are diagnosed with hypostatic complications. Modern methods of therapy lack such a drawback. With their use, a person recovers in the shortest possible time.
How to identify a fracture?
To understand whether a person has a fracture, you need to pay attention to the symptoms. The mobility of the joint is impaired, intolerable pain occurs, and the limb itself is deformed. An x-ray in two projections is required. This will help to understand the full extent of the injury. If there is no bias, then the patient is cast. It is worn for 8 weeks. This method is called a plaster immobilization procedure.
If a person has displaced bone fragments in the picture, then immediately begin to restore the surfaces of the bones and joints. In this case, the limb axis should be restored. Only after such treatment it is worth thinking about conducting therapy that will allow you to cope directly with the fracture itself. After the operation, the patient is prescribed a full recovery complex.
First aid
When providing first aid, the Diterichs transport bus is often used. It is for her the easiest to immobilize a person. However, if it is not at hand, you can use home-made devices made from readily available materials. This can be a board, ski, reeds, cardboard and so on. In order for the limb to be maximally fixed, two solid objects of oblong shape should be used. They overlap from opposite sides. If you have to transport a person, you can use the third bus. It must be semi-rigid.
To properly provide first aid for a closed hip fracture, you need to have an idea of the anatomical features of the joint. There are some rules to keep in mind. Three joints should be fixed: knee, hip and ankle. The tire should not be in a place where there is a skin defect. In the case of an open fracture, the area where the bone protrudes outward must also not be affected. A soft layer should be placed under the splint near the joints. This will keep the blood circulation normal.
Tire and pain effect
The long tire is superimposed on the outside. The first end should rest against the armpit, the second should be near the heel. The second bus is superimposed on the inside. Its length should be enough from the affected area to the inguinal. The third tire is superimposed for reliability of fixation if there is a long transportation of the victim. It should be on the back surface, grab the foot due to any object of the L-shaped form. Tires need to be well bandaged to the body. If there is no object nearby that could be used as a tire, then when providing first aid for a hip fracture, you can attach a diseased limb to a healthy one.
In order for the victim not to begin pain shock, it is necessary to minimize discomfort. For this, painkillers are used. A narcotic substance in the form of morphine or promedol is perfect. However, such potent drugs are rarely at hand in everyday life, so you can use conventional medications. For example, "Analgin" or "Ketanol." If they were not there, then you can take a little strong alcohol. So the victim will be easier to withstand the pain.
The victim can only be transported in a prone position. Otherwise, bone fragments can begin to shift and complications arise.
What is forbidden to do during first aid?
When providing first aid for a hip fracture, it is necessary to do everything correctly to prevent mistakes. Otherwise, you can worsen the condition of the victim. In no case do you need to tightly bandage the tire to the limb. In humans, blood circulation may be impaired, which further leads to the death of cells. Periodically, you need to inspect the limb and its color in order to loosen the bandage if necessary. Do not forget about the soft lining under the tire. If the layer is insufficient, then a bedsore can form. Fixation should not be weak. The joints and limb must be completely blocked. The victim should not move independently and rely on the limb that has been damaged.
The success of first aid in hip fracture depends entirely on the professionalism of the person helping.
Help with an open fracture
Be sure to stop the bleeding and relieve the pain effect. It is best to use a local anesthetic in ampoules. To stop bleeding, you must use a tourniquet. It is superimposed on the main vessel.
When providing first aid for an open hip fracture, a splint should be applied. All actions are similar to those carried out with a closed injury. Periodically, it is better to treat the wound with antiseptics to prevent infection.
Treatment
If such an injury occurs, both a conservative treatment method and a surgical one are used. As for the first technique, a plaster cast, skeletal traction are used. Of surgical methods, the installation of the Ilizarov apparatus, prosthetics, and so on is common.
Plastering makes sense only if a person has a fracture without displacement. Sometimes it is useful when there is no way to give preference to another therapy. Plaster is applied to the entire leg, even to the stomach and buttocks. Remove it after 2-4 months. For elderly patients, this method of treatment is not recommended.
If the injury is displaced, then the doctor will prefer skeletal traction. Before prescribing therapy, it is necessary to compare the fragments and restore the bone. Belera’s tire is placed on the foot. Near the knee they fix a knitting needle, which is made of metal. Its weight with a load is about 10 kg. Traction is carried out no longer than 3 months. Due to the long period of limb immobilization, complications can occur.
If the affected person is a young person, then doctors combine the above two methods. First, an extension is made (about a month), and then for 4 months gypsum is applied.
Surgical intervention is applied only if the fracture has a displacement at which reposition cannot be performed, or it has not yielded results.
Rehabilitation
Even with the correct first aid for a fracture of the femoral neck or the joint itself, as well as after treatment, the rehabilitation process will be very important. Motor exercises should be performed, but an injured leg should not be affected. Thanks to this action, lameness and other consequences can be avoided. For efficiency, therapeutic exercises, as well as breathing exercises, are performed. Often prescribed massage and various physiotherapy. Pool activities will be helpful.
Fracture Complications
After the first aid algorithm for hip fracture has been considered, you need to understand what consequences the patient may have.
In this joint there is a huge number of large vessels, nerves. If you damage them, bleeding may begin, sensitivity may be impaired.
The femur is a tubular formation. At its center is a yellow bone marrow. Because of this, trauma can cause fat to enter the bloodstream. Subsequently, embolism of the arteries develops. Sometimes a patient has a stroke or heart attack. In order for the patient not to die with a massive embolism, it is necessary to quickly provide first aid for a hip fracture.