How long can you stay with a broken femur?

What to Expect at Home. Recovery most often takes 4 to 6 months. The length of your recovery will depend on how severe your fracture is, whether you have skin wounds, and how severe they are. Recovery also depends on whether your nerves and blood vessels were injured, and what treatment you had.

What happens if you don’t fix your femur?

If the femur is not set properly, there’s a chance the leg will become shorter than the other one and may cause hip or knee pain many years later. Poor alignment of the femur bone may also be painful. Peripheral damage. The break may also injure the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves of the leg.

What happens if you let a broken bone untreated?

When a bone fracture is untreated, it can result in either a nonunion or a delayed union. In the former case, the bone doesn’t heal at all, which means that it will remain broken. As a result, swelling, tenderness, and pain will continue to worsen over time.

How can you die from a broken femur?

Death can occur following a femur fracture due to complications such as blood clots, pneumonia, or infection. Symptoms of life-threatening injury include: Localized swelling in the legs or groin, with redness and tenderness to touch.

How hard is it to break a femur?

One cubic inch of bone can withstand the weight of five standard pickup trucks, give or take a few pounds. If you’re looking for the specifics to snap a piece of your skeleton, it takes about 4,000 newtons of force to break the typical human femur.

Can a broken femur heal without surgery?

Most people with a fractured femur need some sort of surgery, usually ORIF. Without the surgery, your broken femur may not heal properly. ORIF can place your bones back into their proper configuration. This significantly increases the chance that your bone will heal properly.

Do they cast a broken femur?

Most femoral shaft fractures require surgery to heal. It is unusual for femoral shaft fractures to be treated without surgery. Very young children are sometimes treated with a cast. For more information on that, see Thighbone (Femur) Fractures in Children.

How many pounds of force can a femur withstand?

6,000 lbs
According to the statement that the femur can support 30x body weight, the adult male femur can support roughly 6,000 lbs of compressive force!

How serious is a femur fracture?

A fractured femur is an emergency that can in some cases be life threatening. Seek immediate medical care (call 911) if you, or someone you are with, have any of these life-threatening symptoms including: Confusion or loss of consciousness for even a brief moment. Heavy or uncontrollable bleeding.

Is it hard to break your femur?

The femur, the longest and strongest bone in the human body, is quite hard to break. Unless your bone has been weakened (most commonly the result of osteoporosis, medication side effects or cancer), it takes quite a lot of force to sustain a femur fracture.

How long does it take to recover from a femur fracture?

Most people who receive specialized treatment for a femur fracture are admitted in a long-term nursing or rehabilitation facility. Full recovery can take anywhere from 12 weeks to 12 months. Yet, many patients can start walking much earlier with the help of a physical therapist.

What are the possible complications of a broken femur?

Broken Femur Complications Can Be Serious for Patients 1 Fat Emboli in Femur Fractures. When someone suffers a bone fracture after… 2 Avascular Necrosis. Avascular necrosis is another relatively common and serious complication… 3 Femur Fracture Surgery. When surgery on a femur hip fracture is performed,…

Do you need surgery for a broken femur?

By aenriquez published November 22, 2017. A femur fracture is a crack, break or crush injury to the thigh bone. Smaller, simpler fractures of the femur do not typically require surgery. However, others that completely break the bone, cause the bone to be crushed or displaced need immediate surgery.

Can a femur be repaired after a car accident?

While repairing a broken bone is often the first priority after an accident, there are also a number of complications that patients and medical providers must watch out for. This is especially important when someone has broken their femur, as this is one of the largest bones in the body and can lead to life-threatening complications.