Your femur is the largest and strongest bone in your body, so it’s very resilient to being broken. Nevertheless, the tremendous forces of a car accident are enough to break anything, which is why this kind of serious leg break is not entirely uncommon in a catastrophic auto collision. Fortunately, with the right medical treatment, doctors can do a lot to help someone suffering from a broken femur.
Before treating the injury, however, your doctor will need to determine which of the following kinds of femur fractures you’re suffering from:
- Transverse fractures: These are horizontal breaks of the bone.
- Oblique fractures: These are breaks that form an angled line.
- Spiral fractures: These are breaks that create spiraling line fractures along the bone that look like candy cane stripes.
- Comminuted fractures: These are breaks that involve the bone being separated into three or more pieces.
- Compound fractures: These breaks include bone fragments that come out of the skin.
- Open fractures: These include a bone break in conjunction with a deep wound that exposes the bone.
Depending on what kind of femur fracture occurred, doctors will treat the condition in various ways. In most cases, doctors will perform a surgery to set the bone and provide it with support. If a doctor recommends surgery, patients should not be alarmed, and they should follow the doctor’s recommendations to ensure the most effective healing process. Surgery typically involves the placement of a metal road into the broken bone.
It’s important for patients to be “patient” during the healing process, which could take as long as six months for the typical broken femur. In the meantime, patients whose broken femurs happened due to the negligence of other parties may want to investigate the possibility of pursuing a legal claim to recoup financial damages in court.
