A sideways fall and hip fracture.
A sideways fall onto the hip is known to be a clear risk factor for hip fracture of elderly people, but it has remained unclear how severe injury such a fall can be. This retrospective patient file survey of young adults aged 15 to 49 years suggested that a fall onto the hip is indeed a serious high-impact injury possessing energy to fracture the proximal femur even in young healthy men. This being the case, it is evident that sideways falls can be very dangerous and thus a natural target for fracture prevention.
Kannus
Pekka
P
Accident and Trauma Research Center, UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, Tampere, Finland. pekka.kannus@uta.fi
Leiponen
Petri
P
Parkkari
Jari
J
Palvanen
Mika
M
Järvinen
Markku
M
D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006620:Hip Fractures; D006753:Hospital Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data