A femoral neck stress fracture is when the top piece of the femur bone that connects into the hip socket suffers a break. The injury is most common among runners and those doing military training. A femoral neck stress fracture can also happen with only 2-3 weeks of training. It can be a small stress fracture that heals with a bit of rest or a full-blown fracture that needs surgery to improve. You want to avoid getting to the point where you need surgery to stay healthy.
Femoral Neck Stress Fracture Anatomy
The femoral neck is between the femoral head and the femoral shaft. Forces on the femur create both tension and compression on the femoral on the bone that forms femoral neck stress fractures. When running the femoral neck often takes on more than 3-5 times the weight of the runner. Muscles help to absorb this force, especially the glute muscles. The advantage of stronger muscles is that they often can take on more of these forces. The group most affected by this fracture in premenopausal women due to their decrease in bone density.
Causes of Femoral Neck Stress Fracture
Like most stress fractures, the femoral stress fracture is due to overuse. If a runner is training harder than their body can handle, the body will eventually give. In this case, if the glutes and other surrounding muscles cannot absorb the forces, the femur begins to fracture. This injury tends to hope to runners who try and increase their volume and intensity too quickly.
Symptoms of Femoral Neck Stress Fracture
- Increasing pain that hits earlier and earlier in runs
- Pain that takes longer to go away
- Begins hurting to do normal daily activities
- Feels more like groin pain
- Limited hip mobility
Treatment of Femoral Neck Stress Fracture
Often if the pain is on the lower side of the neck, nonsurgical remedies can work just fine. Regardless this is a serious injury that can have a lot of long-term implications. Doctors will often get you to use crutches and avoid weight bearing as much as possible. When you stop weight bearing, you give the bone a chance to heal really.
Injuries on the upper side of the femoral neck are much more severe. To heal it often takes not weight bearing for a few months and absence from sports for about 3- 4 months. If the healing process is taking severe, it is rare for reinjury. It is vital that you find out the reason for the injury though. Seeing a bone specialist get an MRI may be a great idea.
You want to make sure that you are getting with a right sports medicine provider whether you have surgery or not. One of the keys is going to be building a game plan to get you back to normal. To do that you need to go through a proper rehab.
Finding The Best Local Sports Medicine Providers for Femoral Neck Stress Fracture
9INE POINT Health is the best place to start your search for a health care provider to help you stay healthy. The key to success as an athlete is staying healthy and making sure the injuries are dealt with appropriately. Any athlete that runs a lot is at more risk of a femoral neck stress fracture, and the key to success as an athlete is staying healthy.
9INE POINT Health lets you search for providers by type and skill. For example, you can look for a Physical Therapist with any skill set you need. It does not matter what kind of provider you need, 9INE POINT Health can help you find them and help you to sort through their skills.
If you are unsure where to start your journey, 9INE POINT Health will ask you questions and help you figure out the best starting place. All you have to do is answer a few questions. From there, 9INE POINT Health will connect you with the type of provider best suited for your needs. It does not matter if you are injured or making sure you don’t run into femoral neck stress fracture issues.
The platform makes it easy to compare health providers as they are all given a 9INE POINT Number. How do you decide which healthcare providers are the best? Reading bios and reviews is just not enough because you need more than that.
Skill Sets to Look for In Sports Medicine Providers When Dealing with a Femoral Neck Stress Fracture
Skill sets are the things healthcare providers learn after they graduate. A healthcare provider can take courses and get certifications for different skill sets. These skill sets are valuable and help them approach injuries from different perspectives so that you can get the best help at the right time for any femoral neck stress fracture issues.
- Dry needling
- Acupuncture
- Joint Manipulation
- Active Release Technique
- Graston Technique
- Functional Movement Screen
- Fascial Stretching
- Strength and Conditioning Coach
- Athletic Trainer
- Sports Background
- And many more
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9INE POINT Health was created by 9INE POINT in '19 as a means to provide athlete-driven resources to "Protect Athletes' Minds, Body and Belly". As well as be a platform for healthcare providers and other specialists to display their knowledge.