Fragility fractures of the pelvis in the older population.

Abstract

Pelvic fractures are an increasingly common injury seen in the older population and represent a significant burden of morbidity and mortality in this age group, as well as a large financial burden on the health service. It is well established that early fixation of femoral neck and acetabular fractures improves outcomes and increases the chances of patients returning close to their premorbid functional baseline. However, fixation of fragility fractures of the pelvis is less well established in current practice. There has been recent development of novel stabilisation techniques for unstable pelvic fractures, designed to tackle the difficulties associated with fixation in poor bone quality, along with medical trials of parathyroid hormone analogue treatment. However, it is still current practice to manage nearly all fragility fractures of the pelvis conservatively. In this article, we consider whether the development of surgical stabilisation techniques for pelvic fragility fractures may have the potential to improve the well-described morbidity and mortality associated with them.