[Fatigue fractures of the femoral neck. Retrospective study of 12 cases].

The authors are performing a retrospective analysis of 12 femoral neck stress fractures gathered between 1977 and 1984 at the "Hôpital Regional des Armées de Toulouse". These fractures, localised at the femoral neck, occur after the beginning of training course, latter than by the other localisations. This shift can be explained by the acceleration of training level at the end of the instruction and by the importance of the muscle strain as a releasing factor of this pathology. The clinical is stereotyped, the X ray photographs often point out a fracture mark or a osseous condensation in strips perpendicular to the forces lines. However, the evolutionary potential of this fracture is high and the authors find out three displaced fractures. So they suggest a usual practice towards this pathology including a osseous radiography and scintigraphy the diagnostic should be done during the useful phase of this affection which is the stress prefracture state: stereotyped clinical frame, normal radiography and positive osseous scintigraphy.