Distal Femur Fracture
Your knees make most of your daily activities possible. You use them to get out of bed, walk to the sink to brush your teeth, and they carry you throughout the day as you get ready for work, take the kids to school, and perform other activities. But, as with most body parts, most people don’t stop to think about them — until pain or discomfort signals that there’s something wrong. That’s when you should see an experienced orthopedic specialist at Colorado Center of Orthopaedic Excellence in Colorado Springs, Colorado right away. A distal femur fracture is a serious matter because of the number of blood vessels in the bone and the risk a break can pose to surrounding muscles. A misdiagnosis or delay of care can result in serious complications.
OVERVIEW
A distal femur fracture is a break of the thigh bone just above the knee. The distal femur can be broken into many pieces or just crack slightly depending on the quality of the bone and type of injury. The cracks from a distal femur fracture can extend into the knee joint itself. Fractures of the distal femur most commonly occur in two patient types: younger people (under age 50) who have high-energy injuries and the elderly with weak bones that can result in a fall. Distal femur fractures account for 7% of all femur fractures. Other medical terms for a distal femur fracture are supracondylar femur fracture, intercondylar femur fracture, or Hoffa’s fracture. In both the young and the elderly the breaks that occur may shatter the bone into pieces.
ABOUT THE KNEE
The knee is the largest weight-bearing joint in the body. It helps one sit, stand, lift, walk, run, and jump. It also has many parts that can get injured: tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bones that you can crack, tear, dislocate, and more. It’s one of the most stressed joints in the body. For every pound one weighs, the knees receive four times the amount of stress. This is why if one is overweight or obese, losing weight is essential to protecting knee health. The knees are the most complicated joints in the body. While to the naked eye, the knees may just look like a ball-shaped patella cradled between two larger bones, the joint is composed of the femur (thigh bone), patella (knee cap), and the top section of the tibia (the shin bone). All of it is held in place by tendons and ligaments — and in between all of it, there’s cartilage that allows the knee to glide smoothly. If this is disrupted, arthritis can occur.
WHAT IS A DISTAL FEMUR FRACTURE?
A distal femur fracture is a fracture found at the end of the thigh bone (the distal femur). Distal femur fractures can vary:
Closed fracture—the skin is not ruptured.
Open fracture—the skin is cut open during the injury and a part of the bone may stick out. They have a higher risk of complications and take a longer time to heal.
Comminuted fracture—the injury causes the bone to shatter into multiple pieces.
Transverse fracture—the crack or breakage occurs straight across the bone These fractures may not only damage the femur but also affect the tendons and ligaments that surround it. The hamstring and the quadriceps muscles may tend to snap and shorten when the bone breaks.
Intra-articular fractures—sometimes, these fractures extend into the knee joint and separate the surface of the bone into a few or many parts. These types of fractures are called intra-articular because they damage the cartilage surface of the bone. Intra-articular fractures can be more difficult to treat.
Read more about Distal Femur Fracture on our new Colorado Springs Orthopedic News Site – Colorado Springs Orthopedic News. Schedule an appointment with a sports medicine specialist today.
