Hip Fracture

A hip fracture is the medical name for breaking the upper part of your thigh bone (femur) near your hip joint.

Your femur is the longest and strongest bone in your body, so it usually takes a serious fall, car accident or other trauma to break it. You’ll almost always need surgery to repair a hip fracture.

People sometimes joke about broken hips as shorthand for a friend getting older. This is usually just playful teasing, but it’s important to remember that broken hips are serious, potentially life-changing injuries.

Types of hip fractures

Your hip is a ball-and-socket joint. The ball-shaped top (the head) of your femur fits into a socket (the acetabulum) in your pelvis. A broken hip is a broad category that means any type of bone fracture that affects the upper part of your femur.

Healthcare providers classify broken hips based on where the femur breaks:

• Femoral head fractures: The femoral head is the rounded cap at the top (proximal) end of your femur. It’s very rare to break your femoral head.
• Femoral neck fractures (subcapital or intracapsular fractures): The femoral neck is the bridge between your femur’s rounded head and the long shaft that runs down through your thigh. It’s the most common place for hips to break.
• Intertrochanteric fractures: The greater and lesser trochanters are bumps of bone that stick out just around the femoral neck. Muscles and tendons attach to the trochanters. Intertrochanteric fractures happen when a hip fracture breaks the space between these bony bumps.

Providers may also give a hip fracture a name based on the fracture’s pattern (its shape or direction), including:

• Transverse fractures.
• Oblique fractures.
• Spiral fractures.
• Comminuted fractures.