The neglected hip fracture.

An untreated fracture of the hip will usually present as a nonunion or a malunion and can present a great challenge to the surgeon. We present our experience with 54 neglected hip fractures, of which 48 had surgical treatment. Malunions were treated with corrective osteotomy. Total hip arthroplasty was used for the older patients with femoral neck nonunions. The younger patients with femoral neck nonunion represented the most difficult problem, and we found valgus osteotomy to be the best procedure for this group.