Boyd-Fractured+Femur

Fractured Femur
Kristen Boyd

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The Femur is the longest, strongest, thickest bone in the body. It connects the hip joint to the knee joint. It takes a lot of force to break or fracture the femur. Because of this, in most cases, you'll see that people will fracture their femur while playing contact sports or sports which involve moving at high speeds. Some examples of these sports include football, skiing and snowmobiling. =====

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When an athlete fractures their femur, they may experience severe pain, inability to move the leg, swelling, bruising or deformity at the site of the fracture. They will be inable to walk on that leg, and it might feel as though the bone in their thigh is moving. If the athlete loses a lot of blood when they fracture their femur, they could also feel coldness, numbness, or tingling in their foot or lower leg. This is because the blood supply to these areas are injured as well. If too much blood is lost, the athlete may go into shock. =====

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Once the athlete has been examined by the ATC, they will need to be taken to the hospital to have an X-Ray done. This is to show where the break has occured. Because of the great deal of force that is needed to break a femur, the doctor will examine other areas such as the pelvis, knee and lower leg for other injuries. In most cases, a fractured femur is needed to be fixed in surgery. During surgery steel screws, steel plates and steel screws, or steel rods which can be placed down the center of the shaft of the femur are put in. Most healthy adults do not need a full cast, but a body cast that includes the entire injured leg and part of the uninjured leg are commonly used in young children. Crutches are to be used for at least 8 to 12 weeks. After surgery, a person who has fractured their femur will have to begin physical therapy to start regaining strength. The actual break in the femur should heal in approximately 4 months, but the time of recovery and strengthening all depends on the extent of the injury. The screws or plates may or may not be removed from the femur once the athlete has healed. For the athlete, it may be a very long time until he or she is able to return to sports. In order to return to sports, the athlete should be able to: 1) Have full range of motion in the injured leg 2) Full strength of injured leg 3) Sprint straight ahead without pain or limping 4) Do 45-degree cuts while running at both half speed and full speed 5) Do 20-yard, then 10-yard figure-of-eights at half and full speed 6) Jump on both legs without feeling pain 7) Jump on only the injured leg without pain  The femur is connects the hip joint to the knee joint. It is located in the thigh, and has many muscles attached to it. Some of these include the gluteus maximus, adductor magnus, adductor brevis, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius. The blood supply enters the femur through metaphyseal arteries and branches of the profunda femoris artery, penetrating the diaphysis and forming medullary arteries extending proximally and distally. =====

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