How Can a Surgeon Fix Your Broken Femur?

Usually, when you break a bone, your orthopedic doctor will put a cast on the limb and tell you to wait 6–8 weeks. But breaking your femur, the large bone in your thigh, is quite a bit different. Because the femur takes a huge amount of force to break, when it does break, the bone tends to displace. There also tends to be a lot of muscle and ligament damage in addition to the broken bone. For these reasons, it is not at all uncommon for patients to require orthopedic surgery after a femur fracture.

Usually, the procedure performed is known as open reduction and internal fixation, or ORIF. Here's what will happen when you go in for this surgery.

Step 1: You're put under general anesthesia.

More orthopedic surgeries are being performed with local or regional anesthetics lately. But since the femur is such a large bone and the necessary incision is so large, your orthopedic surgeon will put you under general anesthesia before your ORIF procedure. This means you'll be completely unconscious. Your anesthesia should be overseen by an anesthesiologist—a separate doctor whose job is just to monitor your anesthesia during the surgery.

Step 2: They make an incision. 

The incision for femur ORIF is quite large. It will stretch from your hip down to your knee. Even if your break is towards the hip or knee part of your femur, your surgeon will likely cut the entire length of your leg as this gives them more space to work.

Step 3: They perform a reduction.

Reduction is a fancy medical term that basically means the parts of the fractured bone are put back together. The surgeon will make sure that the bone is aligned and positioned properly so that they can grow back together in a sturdy way as your body heals.

Step 4: They fix your femur.

Once the femur bone fragments have been reduced, your surgeon will use screws, metal plates, or pins to hold the bone fragments in place. They'll choose the hardware based on the size of the fragments and how much stability they believe your femur will need. 

Step 5: They make additional tissue repairs.

If your surgeon finds any damaged ligaments, tendons, or muscles during the surgery, they will make some repairs to these tissues before closing your incision.

Step 6: They close the incision.

For an ORIF procedure, several layers of stitches are used to close the incision. This makes the stitches more stable and less likely to come loose as you recover.

If you have a broken femur, don't be surprised if you need surgery. It's often the best choice for long-term recovery. Learn more by reaching out to orthopedic surgeons.