On the diagnosis and treatment of femoral neck fractures

282 hemiarthroplasty procedures for an acute femoral neck fracture and 149 hemiarthroplasty procedures after failed internal fixation with two parallel screws were studied retrospectively. The objective was to examine the rate of reoperations occurring after the hemiarthroplasty surgery. The risk of a reoperation was about twice as high for the patients receiving a secondary hemiarthroplasty. In addition, the risk of a rare but especially poor outcome, an excision arthroplasty, was about ten times higher after a secondary arthroplasty. The higher risk of a reoperation after a salvage hemiarthroplasty favours the use of a hemiarthroplasty as primary procedure after displaced femoral neck fractures.