Femoral neck fractures in skeletally mature patients, fifty years old or less.

We studied the cases of thirty-two skeletally mature patients, fifty years old or less, who had a fracture of the femoral neck. In all patients with a stage-1 or 2 fracture, the fracture healed without osteonecrosis. Among the stage-3 and 4 fractures, the rate of non-union was 5.5 per cent and that of osteonecrosis, 33 per cent (3 and 18.8 per cent, respectively, for the whole group). Three patients with osteonecrosis required revision to arthroplasty at six, sixty-eight, and ninety-nine months. Three others had good function of the hip at forty-eight, ninety-six, and 129 months despite the development of osteonecrosis. Treatment of these fractures yielded very good results over-all, and even the occurrence of osteonecrosis did not necessarily cause an unsatisfactory result.