The second hip fracture. An epidemiologic study.

We studied a group of 151 patients who were treated for various types of fractures and who all had a history of a previous hip fracture. A subgroup with new hip fractures had few of their second fractures on the same side as the initial fracture. It appears that a hip fracture reduces the risk of a subsequent hip fracture on the same side to one fourth and that cervical fractures reduce this risk to one sixth. A tendency was found for the hip fracture to be of the same type as the previous one. The time between the first and the second hip fracture was twice as long in those with a previous cervical fracture as in those with a previous trochanteric fracture.